A Touch of Sugar
by venom one
Summary: It was a months worth of detentions.But the time alone with Ginny was a lot more than Draco expected,odd feelings are starting to surface,and...he hears voices? Draco questions what these new emotions mean and he get's a little help from... well, himself.
1. Virginia

Hey! Thank you "Invisible little me" for the idea of this little story. I wrote it and added on to it though. Gonna be a D/G fic as most can probably tell by the summary. I think I'm gonna keep this one short and "sweet". I'm not sure though. Depends on how much feedback I get and where the story takes itself. I don't write it my stories. It seems they always have a life of their own...  
  
Chapter One: Virginia  
  
Draco scanned the Great Hall. He was getting so incredibly bored these days. Both Crabbe and Goyle had been expelled (Draco couldn't see why it hadn't happened sooner) so he never had many people to boss around anymore. Potter and his stupid little friends just ignored him now instead of retaliating so all the joy of making fun of them seemed to fade. Hogwarts had gotten SO boring...until just recently. About a month ago, he had found someone else who was a good target, if not better. He watched as she made her way out of the hall. She was so easily angered that bugging her was like a game he constantly played and won. And no one could beat him.  
  
He quickly excused himself and headed in the direction that she had. Making sure to keep his distance so one wouldn't mistake him for following her. He pulled out his wand and performed a simple spell causing her book bag to split open. Books, quills, and inkbottles clattered to the floor. Her tiny group of friends stopped and waited for her as she bent down to retrieve her things. Making sure he was quiet enough so as not to cause her to look up, he headed toward them. Draco set his foot down on a book she was reaching for.  
  
"I'd expect your bag to be cheap, seeing as you're a Weasley and all," he said. She turned her head up at him.  
  
"Go away Malfoy," she said angrily. He smiled down at her.  
  
"Aw, why the long face? Your loser boyfriend, Creevey, broke up with you, eh Virginia?" he said, knowing he was right. He had seen her run out to the grounds crying the other night but hadn't had the chance to talk to her until now.  
  
"Go AWAY Malfoy," she said firmly, turning a bit red.  
  
"Oh, but I don't really feel like it," he replied. Ginny's friends were looking at them with concern for Ginny. The tallest one stepped forward.  
  
"Shove off, Malfoy. Why don't you pick on someone you own..."  
  
"Shut UP, Green. I know having the biggest mouth in the whole school gives you some kind of RIGHT to talk but HONESTLY," she immediately backed away. Ginny looked back at them.  
  
"You guys can go. I'll catch up. I can handle Malfoy," she said quietly. Slowly, they nodded and started heading down the hall.  
  
"Oh, can you now?"  
  
She didn't pay attention him and finished grabbing her stuff. She got up and started walking after her friends. Draco stared at the red head for a second and then hurried to catch up with her.  
  
"Virginia, don't ignore me," he said taking hold of her arm. She shook him off and kept walking. This was making him annoyed.  
  
"Quite calling me that," she said, not looking back at him.  
  
"But your name is so SPECIAL. It describes exactly what you are, VIRGINia," he said smiling. He looked down at her hands as she clenched and unclenched them. He walked up to her resting a hand on the small of her back. She tensed underneath him. He leaned in close to her.  
  
"You gonna hit me?" he whispered in her ear. He trailed his hand down her spine. He felt her shiver.  
  
"I DARE you," he smiled as she closed her eyes and whimpered. He put his arms around her waist and slowly started to bring his arms higher on her torso.  
  
"Come on,"  
  
She jerked away from him and before he knew what was happening he found himself on the ground looking up at her. He put his hand up to his face but received a surge of pain. He pulled it away and looked down at it. His whole hand was covered in blood.  
  
"You bitch. You really did it. How...where the hell did you learn to punch that hard?" he said in pain.  
  
"How dare you touch me?" she replied. Her face was as red as her hair, concealing her freckles. She looked furious. "You pig..." she started shacking her head and backing away.  
  
"Miss Weasley stop right there!" someone called. Draco turned his head around to see to figures walking towards them. Professor Snape and McGonagall.  
  
"We saw everything. Explain yourself young lady," Professor McGonagall said, her lips turning the smallest of thin lines. Draco's face fell. Had they seen EVERYthing? This wasn't looking to good for him at the moment.  
  
"Professor he..." Ginny started, her eyes watering for some reason. Snape cut her off.  
  
"I saw enough. You punched Draco. That's against school rules. 50 points from Gryffindor and a...months worth of detentions," he said, icily. Draco saw Ginny's lip quiver. What a baby...  
  
"But professor he..."  
  
"No buts Weasley," McGonagall stepped in now.  
  
"Severus, I think that Draco should get punishment too. Obviously, he taunted her," she said. Snape stared at her. Draco looked up at both of them, he was still on the ground.  
  
"Minerva, she could have permanently damaged him,"  
  
"Oh, his pretty little face will be fine. After he goes up to the hospital wing to get healed then he can have detention also. It's only fair,"  
  
"But Minerva..."  
  
"Professor PLEASE can I go to the hospital wing?" Draco finally spoke up. He was holding his nose, which was drenched in blood.  
  
"Of course. Miss Weasley, YOU may assist him and possibly try to set aside your differences for now. You'll be spending every night for the next month together," Snape said, helping Draco up.  
  
Draco started heading down the hall and reluctantly Ginny followed. They stayed quite clear from each other. Draco, not wanting to get hit again. And Ginny had her own reasons. After a few minutes Draco heard something come from her direction. He looked over at her, careful not to get blood on his robes. A tear slid down her cheek. He sighed.  
  
"Come ON Weasley, what are you crying for now? Don't tell me that was your first detention or something," he said getting annoyed. HE should be the one crying. His nose hurt like hell. He saw her nod.  
  
"And not only is it my first," she said very quietly, rather to herself than to Draco. "But it's a whole months worth and for something I didn't even do," Draco let out a puff of breath.  
  
"You PUNCHED me! It's totally all your fault...Virginia," he said. He saw her eyes flare again and smirked.  
  
"It is not! The only reason I did was because you were...well, you.." she paused and looked down at the ground. Draco looked over at her and scowled.  
  
"I didn't do anything to you that you didn't like,"  
  
*****  
  
"Way to go, Gin!" Ron clapped her hard on the back. She had just arrived at dinner that night from being in the hospital wing with Malfoy. They had both entered the Great Hall at the same time. Whispering had filled the hall when everyone saw Draco. Since he had been fighting, Mrs. Pomfrey thought that it would do him good to heal without magic. And since he had broken it, there was a large cast like thing on his nose. The second Ron had seen him he let out a loud laugh and asked Ginny what had happened when she had reached the table. And, quietly, she had replied, "I hit him," Now she was surrounded by Harry and Ron, being congratulated.  
  
"Oh man! I've been wanting to do that so bad ALL year! But Hermione over here's all like 'No, fighting is only what he wants. If you ignore him he'll get bored and leave you alone'" he mimicked Hermione in a high pitched voice causing her to frowned at him.  
  
"We never thought it would actually work and he'd go after you," put in Harry. "So, what did he do that sent you over the edge?" he asked curiously.  
  
"Nothing," she whispered. Harry and Ron looked over at each other and Ron became the overprotective brother that he was.  
  
"Ginny, what did he do?" he asked, looking at her. She shook her head, not making eye contact with him.  
  
"No,"  
  
"Ginny, tell me now," Ron said, taking hold of her shoulders. She said something very quietly that he didn't her.  
  
"What?"  
  
"He..he tried to..touch me," she said again bowing her head. Ron stood up furiously.  
  
"He did WHAT?!" his eyes flashed. He swiveled his head toward the Slytherin table.  
  
"I'm going to KILL him!" he started to make his way to the other side of the room. Ginny grabbed his hand, holding him back.  
  
"Ron, stop. It's not the way you were thinking it was. I overreacted...that's all,"  
  
She had been scared, and that's why she had punched him. But the thing that scared her the most was what he had said before they entered the Hospital Wing.  
  
'I didn't do anything to you that you didn't like,' he had said. Ginny shivered, he had been partly right. No one had ever done that to her and she found that she didn't NOT like it. If it had been someone else, Harry maybe, she wouldn't have reacted the way she had. But, back when it had happen she had been confused why she didn't mind Malfoy doing that, and that's when she had hit him. That had felt even better, to see him lying on the ground in pain, bleeding everywhere. It turns out living with six brothers has its advantages.  
  
******  
  
Draco sat in his bed that night unable to get to sleep. He was too afraid he'd roll over and break his nose even more. How was he suppose to spend the next month with that woman?  
  
He thought of what had caused her to hit him. He had totally crossed the line. Even thought he loved annoying her, that had been going to far. But he wasn't about to admit that he was wrong. He lied back in the pillows and sighed.  
  
"Ah, man. What have I done?"  
  
A/N!: Yes, I know that was short. I just wanted to get it up today. The next chapters will all be much longer. I really want a reviews for this. It will be better I promise you. This was just to get the story going. The next chapters are going to have the detentions and all that good stuff. If I made any mistakes or like someone's out of character or something, please tell me so I can fix it. LYL. See ya in the next chapter! 


	2. Kissing

Wow! Thanks for the reviews! *Grabs reader and kisses 'em* oh, sorry, I overreact at times. Thank you Kelsey McCartney for putting me on your favs list, that makes me sooo happy. And, I'm glad I made you laugh Sky (though, I didn't really mean to.) was it that funny? Thankx again for the reviews. I'm hoping to get more for this chapter..  
  
Chapter Two: Kissing  
  
"But professor, I don't want to! You can't make me spend a whole MONTH with that thing!" Draco practically yelled at the man standing in front of him.  
  
"Mr. Malfoy, I'm sorry. I tried to get you out of it but professor McGonagall already talked to the Headmaster,"  
  
"But this isn't fair. She's the one that hurt ME," he said, pointing at the large white thing that covered almost half of his face. Draco knew he was exaggerating but still, NO one hit a Malfoy and got away with it. Especially not female Weasley's.  
  
"Draco, I don't think you're completely innocent. No matter how much I don't like saying this, Miss Weasley is a fairly good student and DOESN'T go around hitting people. You must have done SOMETHING,"  
  
"Yes...but I'm not telling you what it was," Draco replied, almost feeling instead of remembering her freeze under his hands.  
  
Snape raised an eyebrow. "All right, back to the subject of your detention tonight," Draco sighed at this. "You're going to go out on the grounds at 8:00, Hagrid has something you can help him with,"  
  
"Oh, come on. Please don't tell me I have to go into the forest again," he said, remembering all to well that time in his first year. He had been as scared as hell and he certainly didn't want to go through that again.  
  
"I don't know what you're going to do. Now I think that you should get off to your next class,"  
  
"All right,"  
  
Potions had just finished and Snape had held Draco back. But, if he wasn't careful he was going to be late for Transfiguration. He made his way to the classroom and took his seat.  
  
Draco tried desperately to concentrate on turning his slug into a ferret (he scowled at this) then to a fish, and back to a slug again. But something or rather someone kept straying into his thoughts. A certain red headed someone. He managed to finish and stared down at the slug on his desk triumphantly.  
  
That night he walked into dinner early. It was 1 and a half hours until his detention. He saw Ron and his friends come in. But, instead of going over to the Gryffindor table, they headed in his direction.  
  
When they reached him he looked up and smirked.  
  
"Ah, what can I do for the loser trio today?" he said.  
  
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Ron had his hands on his waist and was staring down at him.  
  
"Well, I was TOLD I was Draco Malfoy, but I could be wrong. But I'm sure I'm not a Weasley. For one, I'm not poor. Two, I'm not p..."  
  
"Don't give me your crap. You're lucky my sister isn't here. The only reason I didn't kick your ass yesterday was because she stopped me,"  
  
Draco raised and eyebrow. "She stopped you did she? Well, I knew she had to give into the Malfoy charm eventually. Besides, what are you so worked up about?"  
  
"You TOUCHED her!"  
  
"I've touched lots of girls Weasley," he leaned over and pointed Ron hard in the ribs. "And you're now being added to the list,"  
  
Ron's eyes flared and he stepped forward. Hermione reached out a hand and held him back.  
  
"Come on, Ron. Don't start something," she said. Ron looked back at her and then to Draco.  
  
"I'm not finished with you Malfoy," he said as he turned around and started heading off with Hermione and Harry. Draco called after them.  
  
"It looks like you are Weasel!"  
  
Ron scowled and stomped off. Draco slowly started to eat. He noticed Ginny walk in. He put his hand in his pocket to make sure the folded piece of parchment was still inside. When he was finished he got up and headed towards her. Making sure to catch Ron's eye. He held it for a second and stepped up next to Ginny, stopping briefly to drop and note in her lap and left.  
  
*****  
  
Ginny stared down at the piece of paper Draco had dropped. She looked up to see him leaving the Great Hall. Being as curious as she was, she ignored Ron's protest, picked up the letter and opened it. She could almost hear Draco's voice as she read.  
  
Dear (it looked like he had crossed out 'Virginia' and 'Ginny') Weasley,  
  
You don't know how hard it is for to say this but I'm sorry. I crossed the lines last night and, seeing as I have to spend the next month with you and don't want to get punched again, I apologize. But only for the sake of my face. I think we should at least try to be civil with each other until this is over and then I can go back to annoying you in peace. Though, I do think this is the ultimate payback to your brother, I don't want to do this. I'd rather kiss a blast-ended-skrewt then to spend time alone with you.  
  
-Draco T. Malfoy  
  
Well, what a pleasant letter, Ginny thought. It did sound like Malfoy though. She was just surprised that he had apologized, even if it didn't sound like he meant it.  
  
The second she finished reading and was just refolding it, Ron jumped.  
  
"What is it? What did he write?" he asked, grabbing the letter. He skimmed the first sentence, paused, and looked up.  
  
"Did he just say he was sorry?" he asked, shocked. Ginny took back the parchment, not wanting him to read the rest.  
  
"Yes he did," Ron still looked at her with his mouth slightly open.  
  
"Ginny, don't trust Malfoy. You don't know him,"  
  
"I DO know him, he's been picking on ME the last year," she said annoyed. "And who said I WAS going to trust him?"  
  
Ron looked a tad bit taken aback.  
  
"Well, I was just saying..."  
  
"No, you weren't just saying, you were jumping to conclusions again,"  
  
Ron sighed. "All right Gin, just be careful,"  
  
She smiled. "I will," looking down at her watch she added, "I have to go, it's already 8. I'll see you guys later,"  
  
She left the Great hall and went up to her dorm to retrieve an extra cloak. As she was walking through one of the halls she heard footsteps behind her and sped up, not wanting to encounter anyone.  
  
"I see you're in a hurry to get out to the grounds, Virginia," a voice said. She turned around and saw Draco walking up to her. He had also brought and extra cloak and had it slung over his arm.  
  
"If you're going to at least TRY to be civil, please call me Ginny," she said, as he reached her.  
  
"All right...Ginny" he said slowly, as if itching to call her Virginia once again. They continued to walk down the hall. "So, you got my letter?"  
  
Ginny snorted, "How could I not? You practically shoved it in my face. There wasn't an easier way to get it to me?"  
  
"I would've sent it by owl but I wanted to annoy your brother. And you for that matter,"  
  
"Well, it's sure working. Oh, and by the way, I'll make sure you get your little kiss," she said, trying to copy his signature smirk. He looked at her bewildered and then remembered.  
  
"How?" he asked, his eyebrows raising on his forehead.  
  
"Oh, you'll see," she paused and her mind went back to the latter. "So what does the 'T' in your name stand for?"  
  
He looked down at her. "I said we were going to be 'civil' not 'friendly'. It doesn't matter to you,"  
  
"Fine, be that way you stuck up prat," she said without thinking. Sometimes living with six brothers and speaking your mind all the time wasn't very good when it came to school.  
  
"Tempest," he said, almost at the exact same time she started talking. "And if that's what you really think of me than I don't see the point of being civil,"  
  
"Oh, well..." Ginny noticed what he had just said. "Tempest? What kind of name is Tempest?" she asked, laughing. Draco glared at her.  
  
"It's Greek. Means 'stormy'" he said calmly. Ginny snorted again. She really needed to quite doing that..  
  
"Who would ever use THAT in a sentence? It's very 'tempest' outside today..."  
  
She heard something come from Draco and was sure he laughed slightly but thought better of it.  
  
"Ah! 'ere you two are. I been waitin'," Ginny looked up. She hadn't even noticed that they were outside yet. Hagrid was waving over to them from his hut. Draco let out a puff of breath.  
  
"Arg! I not only have to spend the night with you but they had to throw in that oversized baby too," he said with dislike. Ginny glanced at him angrily.  
  
"Shut up, Malfoy," he held up a hand to stop her.  
  
"If I have to call you by your name...you have to call me by mine,"  
  
"Fine...Tempest," she said grinning. Draco glared at her and was about to say something when Hagrid interrupted him  
  
"Today, I'm haven' yer 'elp me with catchin one of 'em blast-ended-skrewts that got loose. It's been wanderin' the grounds and is gonna become a danger to students. All yer have to do is go out an find 'im, bring 'im back in one piece, an yer done. Got that?"  
  
Ginny looked over at Draco. His face had fallen the second Hagrid 'blast'. She was SO going to make him pay for always being so cruel to her and Ron.  
  
"Got it, Hagrid! We'll have him back asap! When do you want us to leave?" Ginny asked. Hagrid scratched his bushy beard.  
  
"Hmm.. I guess ya could leave now if ya like," he said.  
  
"Okay. Come on Tempest," she started headed off to search the ground. Draco didn't fallow at first but soon she heard his hurried footsteps to catch up with her.  
  
"Listen VIRGINIA, quite calling me Tempest. And why are you so nice to the guy?" he asked. She frowned at him.  
  
"Because he's my friend you prick,"  
  
They roamed the grounds for a bit. It had started to get dark so both Ginny and Draco pulled out their wands at the same time muttering 'Lumus'. The whole time Ginny was fighting the urge to punch him. But that wouldn't have done any good for it had got them here in the first place. What took her by some surprise was that Draco was sticking to his word of being civil most of the time. He even started talking to her a bit. And not to tease her or get on her nerves. To just talk. Though, he was getting on her nerves anyway because all he seemed to talk about was his money, his looks (Ginny found out that once he had a girl run up to him wanted to get a picture of her kissing him), and how much he hated the school. But, he had accidentally strayed to the topics of books and that's what they were talking about at the moment.  
  
"My personal favorite was J.R.R. Tolkien. He was just so brilliant," she put in. He looked at her.  
  
"Who's that?" he asked. Her mouth dropped slightly.  
  
"You don't know who that was?!" he shook his head. "Wow. Well, he was this Muggle author who wrote a trilogy called Lord of the Rings. It has a lot to do with magic and fantasy and, well, lots of stuff. And some of his ideas about magic and different creatures were so close to the truth it was scary,"  
  
"Oh...well, I don't read Muggle fiction. So I wouldn't know... what was that?" he asked suddenly. Ginny was just about to ask that herself. The bush they were passing started shacking. They both backed away from it.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"I dunno. Stay here," he said, slowly walking forwarded. He got to the bush and peered through the leaves then motioned for her to join him.  
  
"It's the skrewt," he did something with his wand and the skrewt scuttle out of the bush. Ginny looked down at it.  
  
"What do you think we should do? Stun it?" Draco asked, holding out his wand. Ginny shook her head.  
  
"No. You can't, you have something to do first," he put his hands on his hips.  
  
"And what would that be?"  
  
"Kiss it," she confirmed. His jaw dropped.  
  
"What?! There is no way in hell, Weasley...Ginny, that you're going to get me to kiss that!"  
  
She looked at him. Well, he was acting like a baby, it was just a kiss.  
  
"You said you'd, and I quote, "rather kiss a blast-ended skrewt than spend time alone with me". Now you have to prove it," she said.  
  
"That's not very fair. You know I was just joking,"  
  
"It didn't seem like it. And besides, if you don't, I'm going to tell my brother you touched me again..." she added, and was happy with the tiny look of fear that came to his face.  
  
"No! Don't do that!" he pause and looked down at the skrewt in disgust. "Fine. But only to show you that a Malfoy is no coward. We'd do anything,"  
  
He took a deep breath and bent down to retrieve the animal. He winced as he picked it up. It was fairly big. Probably about 5 feet or so. It started to wiggle. He glanced over at Ginny who nodded her head for him to continue. He gulped and leaned in to kiss it. And, as luck would have it, the second his lips touched it, its rear-end exploded with a load 'pop'. Leaving Draco furious and charred. Ginny burst out with laughter. Draco's eyebrows met each other in the middle of his black forehead.  
  
"What did it do? What do I look like?" he asked frantically. Ginny turned her eyes to him. His hair was sticking up a little and it wasn't blond and more but a dirty shade of brown. And almost his whole face was black from the small explosion. But, Ginny couldn't say any of this for she was still laughing. Laughing so loud in fact that Hagrid, who was on the other side of the grounds AND castle, could hear her.  
  
A/N!: HA! Did I trick any of you with the chapter title! Did any one think that they would kiss? Jeeze, I'm not going to make them kiss in the SECOND chapter. Anywayz.. Okay, okay! The whole 'Tempest' thing was just me experimenting with different middle names for him. I went looking at baby name sites and thought this one sounded a little cool. I was trying to find a Latin one but I found this one first. I was going to try Braeu, which means 'handsome' (lol) in I think Greek or something. But Draco B. Malfoy didn't seem to fit. If anyone thinks it's dumb just tell me and I MIGHT change it. Give me a suggestion if you like.  
  
!!!!!!!P.S!!!!!!!! IF ANYONE HAS DETENTION IDEA'S FOR PLEASE TELL ME VIA E- MAIL OR REVIEW. I ALREADY HAVE A SOME BUT IF YOU WANT THE STORY TO BE LONDER GIVE ME MORE. IF SO PLEASE SEND E-MAIL TO:  
  
serpant@iamwasted.com THANK YOU!!!!  
  
AND REMEMBER... REVIEW!!!!!!! OR MY TINY MINONS WILL COME AFTER YOU AND EAT YOU! 


	3. All the More Sweeter

Wow! LOVED the response for the last chapter. Yay! Am so happy now. Especially since I saw this on a couple of people's fav list. Thank you. Did anyone know this has more reviews than my NINE chapter story! Wow. Thanks to all those people who gave me detention ideas. I can definitely tell you that I have enough to last about TWO months probably; including the one's that I already had thought of. I will TRY to keep Draco in character but it'll be VERY hard for me to do.. seeing as though this is supposed to be a small D/G fic..  
  
Chapter Three: All the More Sweeter  
  
Draco slouched down to the Slytherin common room. His face hurt like shit but he was to tired to go to the Hospital Wing. It would have been the second time he had gone within the last two days and he didn't want to seem like Potter.  
  
It must've been around 11 o'clock when he entered the Slytherin dungeons. At first it didn't seem like anyone was in there. A few ashes were left in the fireplace and were still aglow. Draco felt as though someone was watching him. In a few seconds his suspicion was confirmed.  
  
"Where were you?" It was Pansy.  
  
"Did you stay up this late to wait for me?" he asked, a little shocked. She looked at him.  
  
"Of course...I thought we had a date tonight? You didn't show up," she said, crossing her arms. He frowned.  
  
"I told you I had to cancel it. I had..." she interrupted him.  
  
"You had a date with the Weasley?" she got up, looking very angry.  
  
"What?!" Draco asked, aghast. "Why would I date HER? I..."  
  
"I saw you two out walking the grounds tonight...would you like to explain yourself?"  
  
"If you had GIVEN me long enough to explain," Draco said, getting irritated. "I would have been able to tell you that I had detention,"  
  
Pansy raised a penciled eyebrow. Draco sighed.  
  
"Do I lie?" he asked. She smiled slightly.  
  
"No, I suppose not," she walked over to him and kissed his cheek. Noticing his rough skin she looked up, "What happened to you?"  
  
"Skrewt," he replied flatly. She raised her eyebrows even further.  
  
"I'm going to bed," she said, instead of asking him what happened.  
  
"Fine,"  
  
"Oh, and you got an owl. It's over there," she pointed at the table on the other side of the room before heading up the stairs. He grabbed the letter and sat down in a large, green lounge chair to read it.  
  
'Mr. Malfoy,  
  
I would like to inform you that your next detention will be tomorrow at the same time as your last one. You and Miss Weasley will be working in the dungeons on a potion Mrs. Pomfrey needs for healing. You shall come on time and be prepared.  
  
-Professor Severus Snape'  
  
Draco leaned back in the chair and looked around the room. Only one thing kept running through his head...  
  
"God, my face hurts," and it was true.  
  
Why had she made him kiss it anyways? And exactly why had he LISTENED to her? She's odd, Draco admitted to himself. He remembered her mumbling to herself as she took off for the Gryffindor tower, 'Good, that's one less day I have to spend with that git,' she had said. Spending the night alone with him would have caused most girls to swoon and get weak at the knees whenever they saw him. Not Ginny though. She seemed to still hate him. Maybe she wasn't like all the other girls. But was still enough alike them to be one. Maybe that's what happened when you grew up in a house full of guys. Perhaps she had become immune to guy's charms, being able to see how their minds worked.  
  
Draco never knew what it was like to have siblings. He was an only child. And at times, his large mansion would get boring with no one to do anything with.  
  
And so, Draco fell asleep, thinking about redheads, skrewts, and mansions.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
The next day was pretty uneventful. Several people pointed out and commented on Draco's new "look". This, he did not find very amusing. Every time Draco had passed Ron in the halls the redhead boy would burst out with laughter and start making kissing noises. Obviously, Ginny had told him what had happened.  
  
That woman! Draco found himself thinking. He was going to make her pay. Draco still wasn't looking forward to tonight's detention. But, perhaps Snape would have something for his face. Draco still refused to go to the Hospital Wing and he didn't know many healing spells himself so he was in much pain.  
  
That night Draco sat in the common room, a half an hour before he had to be down to the dungeons. He thought it would be best to be leaving soon, even though it wouldn't take him long to get there. He didn't want something to happen and him ending up late. That wouldn't be good and might cause him to get ANOTHER detention. And he really didn't want that. He got up from his chair and started making his way out. Someone's hand came to rest on his arm. He turned around.  
  
"Where are you going?" Pansy again. She always seemed to show up right when he didn't want her to.  
  
"I have another detention," he said slowly. She looked a little shocked.  
  
"Again?" she asked.  
  
"Yes, and for the rest of the month too. Now if you excuse me, I have to go. I'm going to be late," he continued walking and heard her sigh.  
  
"She is SO in love with me," he laughed once he was outside. It was true. They had been going out since the beginning of the school year and he could tell she was madly in love with him. Though, he felt quite different. He wasn't sure he felt anything at all. But, being with someone was better than being with no one at all. Not like he couldn't get someone, because he could. Draco could probably have ANY girl he wanted in the school. All he had to do was talk to her and she was hooked. Well, maybe not Virginia. He found himself thinking. And, at this he felt slightly...challenged. He had almost never in his life felt challenged.  
  
His thoughts were interrupted my soft scuffling coming from behind him. He noticed he was already at the dungeons. Ginny showed up at his side.  
  
"Well, here we are...again," she said. She brought her hand up and rapped on the door in front of them. Draco heard something inside and the creaked open revealing their professor.  
  
"Ah, yes. Here for your detention. You're both on time...that's good," he said evenly. Draco saw Ginny nod. The entered the classroom. There were two cauldrons out on the desk and an assortment of ingredients laid about.  
  
"Your instructions are out on the desk. I hope it won't be too hard for you. Although, it IS a very simple potion," he said, settling in his desk to grade papers.  
  
"Um, professor Snape?" The professor looked at him.  
  
"What would you like Mr. Malfoy?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Well, I wanted to know if you have any formulas or something for my face," he asked. Draco heard Ginny trying to stifle a laugh. He looked over at her and frowned...yes, she was a challenge.  
  
"Well, I did have some but I ran out and haven't had the need to make any more. I suggest that you stick with the healing potion for Pomfrey and Miss Weasley can make you "face potion" since it is more advanced," he said. Ginny laughed slightly once more.  
  
"Wait a minute, I'm older and more experienced...don't you think that I should be making the ADVANCED potion," he asked, slightly confused.  
  
"Mr. Malfoy, do you really want me to say why that is. I think YOU should best not ask me," he said smoothly. He obviously didn't think that Draco wanted him saying exactly how much better Ginny was at potions.  
  
"Fine," he said scowling and crossed his arms.  
  
Draco started getting to work on the healing potion while Ginny did his "face potion", as Snape had deemed it. He wasn't about to trust her with anything that had to do with his looks. He looked over at her as he dropped some powdered beetles into his cauldron. She was measuring some sort of liquid into a vial and looked greatly interested. Some of her hair was falling from her loose ponytail and framing her face. She had some extra ingredients that Draco didn't have, which were probably for her potion. The corners of her lips were turned up into a slight smile. As Draco observed her he noticed that she didn't seem to find this as a punishment. But more like a...hobby almost. He kept his gaze steady on her for the next minute.  
  
Eventually, she felt his eyes on her and she looked up form her work.  
  
"What are you staring at?" she hissed, narrowing her eyes evilly. Draco quickly turned away.  
  
"Nothing..." he mumbled. Dumping even more contents into the now boiling concoction. She glared at him before turning back to her potion.  
  
The next half hour passed in silence as the first half had. Draco carefully made sure not to peel his eyes away from his cauldron, not wanting Ginny to catch him looking at her. Though, WHY he would be looking at her, he wasn't sure.  
  
Draco heard Ginny give out a triumphant cry. "I'm done!" she said. Staring down at the bubbling liquid. She grabbed a goblet that was on the table and scooped it into it. Turning to Draco she said, "Here, you have to take the whole thing before it works,"  
  
He took the goblet and stared down at it in disgust.  
  
"Why should I trust you?" he asked. She grinned.  
  
"Because I'm more advanced remember?" he grumbled and brought it up to his lips, taking just a tiny sip to see how it tasted. He spit it out.  
  
"Arg! This stuff is disgusting! I can't drink this!"  
  
She grabbed to cup from him. "Fine, you spoiled brat," she said. She turned and grabbed some kind of white powdery stuff from her pile of ingredients.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"Sugar. We can add it for taste and it won't cancel out any off the effects of the potions."  
  
"Virginia, I don't think ANYTHING can make this crap taste better," he said, crossing his arms. She looked at him and frowned.  
  
"A touch of sugar can make something all the more sweeter,"  
  
Draco stared at her. He didn't really believe her but for some reason what she just said stuck with him.  
  
"All right, Weasley. But if this potion goes wrong and I die or something, you're the first one I'm haunting," he said, as she added the sugar.  
  
"You're not going to die you great prat...although, I wish you would,"  
  
"Show's how much you care for me," he muttered, downing the rest of the potion. She had been right. The sugar seemed to canceled out everything bad and he was left with a tasteless heap of sticky substance slithering down his throat. It still wasn't good. But better at least.  
  
"I don't think anyone cares for you, Malfoy,"  
  
"Yes they do. Everyone cares for me, everyone loves me," at this Ginny snorted. Draco found that she did that A LOT. He looked up and tried to think of someone as an example. "What about Pansy, eh? I KNOW she'd care if I died,"  
  
"You little girlfriend doesn't count," she looked at him and suddenly noticed the aftermath of the potion. Her mouth dropped.  
  
"What? Is my face better?"  
  
"Well...your precious little face if fine," Draco scowled at this. "But your..." she looked at the top of his head. His eyes widened and his hands flew to his hair.  
  
"There's nothing wrong with it. It's all there, Weasley," he said. He tugged at some of it and looked up. He could only see the tips but it was enough for him. He gave out as girlish squeak which Ginny found VERY unDraco-like  
  
"It's red! I'm...I'm turning into one of you!" he said, pointing at her. "This isn't very fair. Why is everything happening to me lately? First, I get my nose broken by a GIRL. THEN I have to kiss a blast-ended-skrewt and it blows up in my face. And now that I'm all better I turn into a Weasley!"  
  
"You're not turning into a Weasley. It's just your hair that's all. Probably a side effect,"  
  
Draco turned to professor Snape who was sitting at his desk with an amused expression playing on his face.  
  
"Professor, is there and way to reverse it?" he asked desperately. Snape looked up at him, obviously hiding laughter.  
  
"It will fade in a few days," he said. "Oh, by the way, your detention is now over. I suggest you leave and go up to bed I will inform you of tomorrow's detention soon,"  
  
Draco started cleaning up his things.  
  
"This is so stupid," he mumbled under his breath.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
  
  
A/N!: HEY! Would anyone like to go read another new fic of mine? I think I uploaded it at like the wrong time or something because like 5 seconds after I loaded it, it was already to the second page of HP fics. AND IT HAS NO REVIEWS!!!! So, someone go read it. It's called Uncertain Relinquish. Oh yeah. And the last line of the summary is 'Will her and Severus be able to forget the past and do something good for a change?' or something like that. Cuz it didn't show up. ANYWAYZ. Hope people review this!!!!  
  
-Love, Dracaena  
  
P.S. Sorry if this Chapter was a little stupid (and short) I didn't want them kissing in the third chapter. Would anyone mind about the fourth one??? I already have it ALL planned out so just keep patient my little children. And it WILL be happening in the next chapter..along with another tiny surprise of mine.hehehe. Review and you'll get to find out! (you will even if you don't but still..) 


	4. Night Patrol

Okay. I know Draco is probably terribly OOC (people are telling me.. No scratch that..yelling at me. : ( JK) but, I can't write this story without getting a little OOC. And it's also like this: this might not be totally the same as how he acts in canon because I have my own picture of him for this story. He's still the little stuck-up prat, whose evil and practically picks on people for a living, but he's also grown up a bit (he's seventh year now) and now thinks that he can get away with a great deal, especially when it comes to Snape (Draco's like Snape's weakness..). Hence Draco telling him that he did something, but still won't tell WHAT it is. AND he was also to busy thinking about her to take notice to what he was saying. But, thank you for your notes and I promise to pay more attention to grammar and spelling (they're my weakness I tell you!)  
  
Chapter Four: Night Patrol  
  
Before Draco knew it, two had passed already passed. And for all he knew...Virginia still hated him. Seeing her every night had almost become kind of a schedule for him. But being with her was like daily chores...he didn't want to do it. Or so he thought.  
  
Why did he constantly find himself thinking about her then? He was perfectly happy with Pansy. But, the stupid little redhead kept flashing before his eyes. When he was doing his homework. During class. Lunch. Dinner. Even during snogging sessions with Pansy she was still the center of his thoughts. It wasn't fair! And Draco wasn't used to things being unfair to him.  
  
He didn't know WHY all this was happening. She was a Weasley. Weasley's are poor, ordinary, ill-tempered, redheaded...cute. 'NO! Where did that come from?!' he mentally yelled at himself,..kind...intelligent..challenging..unpredictable.. 'Stop, stop, STOP!'....hated the Malfoy's. That got him. And Malfoy's hated Weasley's. He smiled at this. The Weasleys were poor, homely, and weak. They were a disgrace to purebloods everywhere. They might have well been Muggles. Arthur would have liked that...  
  
Draco smiled and leaned back in his chair. Someone's voice broke through his thoughts and he sat up quickly.  
  
"Mr. Malfoy! Are you listening to anything I say?" Draco looked up into the cold gray eyes of his DADA professor. She was staring at him over tiny square glasses.  
  
"I..I'm sorry professor. Was I asked a question?"  
  
She glared at him. "Yes, I asked you what the most feared curse is?" he sighed.  
  
"Avada Kedavra,"  
  
"And why is that?" she asked placing her hands on her hips.  
  
"Because it's the killing curse, it kills the victim instantly and none can survive it," he drawled. Well, except Potter...  
  
"Good," she said approvingly. "And I would like a word with you after class," she said, turning back to the board. Draco's eyes widened. He hadn't been THAT out of the lesson?  
  
So, he sat there for the rest of the class, paying attention just in case he was asked something again. Class ended after being assigned an essay that was to be due the next day (Draco thought it should a rule that you don't have to get homework when you had detention...he was going to be up all night) and he picked up his things but stayed behind. After everyone was gone he walked up to the front desk.  
  
"You wanted to talk to me professor Vexsta?" he asked, slinging his book bag on his shoulder.  
  
"Yes. I just wanted to tell you that you would (A/N: shouldn't it be 'will'. My comp. Said 'would' so I was confused.) be serving your detention with me tonight. Helping me grade papers, rearranged things and what-not," she said lightly, motioning her hand to the bookcase. Draco looked down at her long slender fingers. Upon one of them lay a small silver ring, lined with green diamonds and jewels shaping into a snake. If Draco didn't know better...he would have sworn his father had one just like it. Worn on the same finger too. Draco shook his head as his professor continued talking.  
  
"And, if you don't mind, please inform Miss Weasley for me. I don't know the next time I'll be seeing her. I think she has my class tomorrow," she finished. Draco quickly looked up from her hand.  
  
"Of course," he said. He slowly walked out the door. The ring still imprinted in his mind, pushing all thoughts of Ginny out of it.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Ginny silently cursed to herself. Her book bag had spilt open...AGAIN. For about the third time that week. Draco must have done something to it...  
  
God, she hated him. He was so utterly annoying. And mean. And cruel. He was such a bastard at times...no always. She didn't know how he could even stand himself. Surely he didn't think people actually LIKED that. Did he? Well, it would take someone as conceited as he was to think just that. And to think she had to spend every night for the whole month with that monstrosity! It was like he loved to torture her. This whole detention thing wasn't punishment for him. It was just an easier way to get on her nerves.  
  
Although, Ginny couldn't deny that she found him funny every once and a while. In an odd, twisted humor sort of way. And it had certainly been hilarious those few days that he had "turned into a Weasley". He hadn't taken it well and had acted like a small child that had just got an absolutely repulsive Christmas gift. Everyone had found it ironically funny, especially since Draco was always making fun of the Weasleys for their hair (and other things). And Ron had found it amusing at first...that is, until Harry started stating how much him and Malfoy made a perfect couple and looked just alike.  
  
The whole time Draco had been complaining about how he wanted his "beautiful blond hair" back. He did it so much that Ginny practically hexed the red out of his hair during their detention of cleaning trophies just to get him to shut up. Which didn't help, because then he was complaining about how he could still see a hint of orange amongst his strands.  
  
Ginny reached out to grab a quill in front of her when someone's boot came down on it, barely missing her fingers.  
  
"What the-" she looked up into the cold eyes of Draco. Not this again. This was where that whole stupid detention thing had started.  
  
"This would be where I said something about you being poor...BUT, seeing as I have to talk to you...I'll leave that for later," he smirked.  
  
"What happened to that whole 'civil' thing," she asked. He laughed slightly, it wasn't a nice laugh.  
  
"I think that ended when you turned my hair red," he put in. She sighed.  
  
"You just can't take a joke, can you?" he looked at her.  
  
"What do you mean 'I can't take a joke'? Are you trying to tell me that you MEANT to do that and that it WASN'T just a side affect?" he asked coldly, shooting daggers at her.  
  
"Well... I can't say that the sugar was COMPLETELY harmless.." she said, trying to sound innocent. His mouth dropped slightly.  
  
"I can't believe this," he said, shaking his head slightly. She crossed her arms, trying to make herself look bigger although it was impossible for her position. Still on the ground.  
  
"What did you want to talk to me about?" she asked firmly. He let out a puff of air.  
  
"Our detention tonight is with professor Vexsta. 9:00. She told me to tell you. That's all,"  
  
"Is there anything else?" she asked. Draco thought for a moment. WAS there anything else? Yes, there was. He just didn't know exactly what it was. 'I'm sorry,'? No, that didn't sound like something he'd say. 'I've been a jerk lately,'? No, that was even worse. 'I think I might be starting to like you Virginia. I can't get you out of my mind no matter how much I try'. That was a DEFINITE 'No' Draco would make sure those words never escaped his lips. So, instead he settled for:  
  
"No, nothing else. I guess I'm stuck with seeing you then," he said, before turning and disappearing down the hall.  
  
"He is so unreasonable," she said to herself as she finished picking up the rest of her belongings and getting off the floor.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Draco sat in the DADA classroom that night across from Ginny. A large stack of off-white parchment sat in front of them. Professor Vexsta was off doing something by her desk.  
  
He quickly grabbed a red inked quill to grade with, and set to work, being careful not to looked up at Ginny, afraid that she was going to bit his head off...and also he wasn't sure if he'd be able to STOP staring at her...for some reason.  
  
He looked at the first paper. At the top of the paper was the name. Draco Malfoy. He looked back between it and the 'key' professor Vexsta gave him. He got close enough. 30/50? No, of course not. 50/50.  
  
He smiled and pulled even more papers out of the stack to work on. He actually started having fun after the first ten minutes.  
  
Grading papers...this was great! And teachers got to do this everyday? He wondered why teachers always seemed so grouchy. If HE were a teacher and HE got to grade papers...he'd be spent. Just take off points for how much you don't like the person. Or add them if you do (or if they were yourself...)  
  
Hmm. Harry Potter. 46/50. No, that wouldn't do. "0/50", Draco wrote at the top. He looked at the next paper. Ronald Weasley, 44/50. Draco thought for a moment before smirking and writing: "-100/50"  
  
Ginny chose that exact moment to look over at him. She saw his scores.  
  
"What are you doing?" she asked, her eyes widening a bit. He rolled his.  
  
"Grading paper's. What does it look like? Are you too poor to afford glasses or something?" he could see her eyes flare at this. Draco Malfoy just scored a point in the 'Annoy Ginny Weasley Game'.  
  
She glared at him. "Give me those," she said, grabbing his stack of finished homework. She looked them over. "Oh my god, you've done ALL of these wrong!"  
  
"Yeah, I know. My favorite was your brother's," he said. She gave him an odd look and quickly searched the papers for Ron's.  
  
"Arg! I can't believe you!" she said upon finding it. "Negative one hundred out of fifty? What the hell is that?" she asked, outraged. Draco merely shrugged. She glared at him again before turning back to re-correcting the papers he had already done. Draco went back to his unfinished stack. There was a paper that seemed out of place in amongst the rest. He frowned and plucked it out.  
  
It was blank. But the second his hands touched it, dark green writing started materializing.  
  
'I'll see you in your chambers this Tuesday at 11:00. No exceptions. We have something to discuss.'  
  
He stared down at it in confusion. Did that mean today? It was Tuesday all right, but how old was this letter? And what was up with the disappearing ink and such? At the bottom of the paper was a crest. With a snake wrapped around a sword and a Latin saying at the bottom. Draco's mouth would have fallen to the floor had it not been attached to his head, so instead, it just hung there. That was the Malfoy coat of arms. But what..  
  
"What the hell!?" he exclaimed very loudly. Ginny turned to him and gave him an annoyed look.  
  
"What is it NOW?" she asked. Professor Vexsta had turned to them.  
  
"Mr. Malfoy, I advise you to watch your language in my class, even if we're not in a lesson. Is there something wrong?" she asked. Draco brought his hand up to shut his mouth and turned the paper upside down to conceal it.  
  
"No, nothing's wrong....nothing," he said quickly. She frowned.  
  
"All right,"  
  
Draco was still frowning at the letter in his hands. What the hell??? was all he could think. He dropped his voice to a whisper.  
  
"Virginia," he said. She didn't acknowledge him. He thought she didn't hear. He raised his voice a little.  
  
"Virginia!" he said, still whispering. She didn't looked up.  
  
"I heard you the first time," she said icily. He frowned. Don't be difficult NOW! He wanted to scream.  
  
"Virginia, come here," he motioned her closer to him. She raised an eyebrow and looked at him questionably.  
  
"Just do it," she murmured something and quickly was inches away from him. Draco would have really like this..but under the circumstances he wasn't paying attention to that.  
  
"What?" she hissed as quietly as him.  
  
"Look what I found," he said, carefully handing her the paper. She looked bewildered and took it.  
  
"It's just a blank piece of paper Malfoy," her voice dripping with acid. He frowned again and grabbed the paper back from her. The words materialized themselves for the second time. He gave it back to her.  
  
"What do you see?" he asked quietly.  
  
"Still nothing. I don't know what you're trying to pull Draco but I don't like it,"  
  
He got closer to her to look at the paper. While her hands were on it, it was blank. The green words gone. His confusion deepened to a 'What the fuck?'  
  
Without thinking, he glanced at his watch. It was 10:58. So, did that mean...?  
  
"Oh, if you two excuse me. I have something to take care of. I'll be back quite shortly," she said. She got up and headed to a door on the other side of the room. No doubt where her private chambers were. Draco's mouth dropped a tiny bit more upon seeing her serpent ring again. Now he was sure his father had the same one.  
  
He quickly turned to Ginny.  
  
"Weasley, I think she's up to something," he said.  
  
"What are you on about?"  
  
"Hold on," he got up and made his way across the room. He didn't remember Vexsta locking the door. So that meant he'd be able to get into there.  
  
Ginny stood up quickly with shock. "Draco what are you doing?" she asked, hissing again. He held his hand up to silence her and continued to the professors chambers.  
  
"Draco," she warned. "You can't go in there,"  
  
He reached the door. It was slightly ajar. He put his hand to it and it opened a tiny bit with out noise, which was a relief. He heard voices and saw his teacher over by the fireplace of the room, her back turned to him.  
  
A male voice came from somewhere. The fire. "Does anyone suspect?" Draco's forehead crinkled. That voice sounded horribly familiar.  
  
"No, Severus doesn't suspect a thing. Nor Dumbledore. Or anyone else for that matter," professor Vexsta answered to the flames. Draco ran his hand through his hair, trying to keep his breathing quiet.  
  
"How soon are you going to be ready?" the voice asked again.  
  
"Very soon," she said. "Almost everything is in place. It will all be done soon..."  
  
"Good,"  
  
Draco wanted to stay and hear more but the soft 'pop' meaning the visitor was gone told him to leave. He hastily made his way back to his seat and tried to pretend as nothing had happened as professor Vexsta walked back out. The whole time Ginny was throwing him evil looks.  
  
"Well, it seems you two have been a great help. You may go now," she said, returning to her desk. Draco got out of the room a quick as he could and waited for Ginny. When she got out she immediately started talking.  
  
"You just spied on a teacher you stupid prat! You could have gotten caught!" she said, making her way down the hall with him. He turned to her.  
  
"You're lucky I spied on her. Something's definitely up,"  
  
"What ARE you talking about?" she asked again.  
  
"Well, I saw this letter, and her ring and she was talking..." Ginny interrupted him.  
  
"You are so stupid," she said, shaking her head and walking in the direction of the Gryffindor common room. After a few seconds he ran to catch up with her.  
  
"Listen Weasley," he said, grabbing her arm a little more roughly than he would have liked, "why don't you believe me?"  
  
"Let go of me," she said sharply. He didn't obey. "I wouldn't believe you if my life depended on it,"  
  
"Oh, don't be so sure. People do odd things when their life is involved," he said. But she was already pulling away and headed down the hall.  
  
"Fine. I'll just have to find out what's going on myself," he said determined, for he KNEW that had been his father back in her fireplace.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Draco sat back in his bed. He couldn't very well ask his father what was going on. He wouldn't tell him if he did.  
  
He tried to remember the conversation word for word.  
  
'Does anyone suspect?'  
  
'No, Severus doesn't suspect a thing. Nor, does Dumbledore. Or anyone else for that matter,'  
  
'How soon are you going to be ready?'  
  
'Very soon. Almost everything is in place. It will all be over soon...'  
  
'Good,'  
  
Draco frowned. What was all that supposed to mean? Well, Vexsta was wrong about the 'nobody suspecting' part. Because he did. Although, he didn't know what he suspected. He was just getting suspicious.  
  
But, the ring, and the letter. It didn't really make sense...  
  
Suddenly, Draco sat up. He had just thought of something. This was going to be like some mystery HE'D get to solve. Not that stupid Potter. It was his turn to be the hero. To show Potter just who he was dealing with. It couldn't be that hard. Just do a little sneaking around, and go to Dumbledore. He probably wouldn't even end up in the Hospital wing like Potter did every year.  
  
He looked over at the clock without thinking and sighed. He had another detention in about a half an hour. Night Patrol. Not good. That was going to be SO boring.  
  
Getting even more bored at the moment, Draco grabbed at book off of his nightstand. '101 Useful Dark Charms'. His father had gotten it for him last year. Draco flipped through the pages. He looked down. This part of the book was about charms that followed their victims, reeking havoc on their surroundings. Some of the charms had followed people for even years, usually resulting in the victims going crazy to some degree by the end.  
  
A sudden breeze ran through the room, causing some of the pages to turn. The book came to rest on a section about letters. Draco frowned and started reading.  
  
'In some cases, where there letter is intended to only be read by a certain person, a Blood Tracker Charm can be used. It can tell when a certain person's blood and body heat are in contact with the letter. Then, it will only activate and show writing when the reader or sender of the letter touch it. Some problems with this Charm conclude in the fact that it tracks a certain 'blood'. Meaning that it can possibly get a range of people unintended to read it if they are in a way related to one of these people intended to.'  
  
It kept going on and on about different ways to perform the spell and what not. But Draco had stopped reading.  
  
So then it WAS his father. The coat of arms, him being able to read it. It seemed to make sense. But where did Vexsta come in? And what didn't they want people suspecting?  
  
Casually, Draco glanced at his clock.  
  
"Oh, crap!" he was already ten minutes late. He quickly grabbed his cloak and ran down the stairs and out of the common room. He stopped, where was he supposed to go? He couldn't remember. Maybe he should go and try to find Ginny.  
  
"Finally."  
  
Draco jumped and looked around. His eyes fell on Ginny. She had her arms cross and was standing outside the Slytherin entrance. Obviously waiting for him.  
  
"I would have gone up and got you, BUT I don't know the password," she said.  
  
"So, what are we supposed to be doing? Where's the detention teacher?" he asked, quite suddenly. She looked at him.  
  
"We don't really have one today. I guess the teacher thought we've been doing good so their giving us kind of a free one. All we have to do is walk around and give any students who are out detentions. Professor McGonagall will be checking up on us every once and a while to make sure we're doing what we're supposed to,"  
  
"All right," he said. Heading down the hall with her.  
  
  
  
They had been walking around for about two hours and had only given out one detention. And Draco hadn't even got to do it. Ginny did. As they were rounding the corner they heard someone talking. Draco stopped so he could hear what they were saying.  
  
"Hermione. I don't like sneaking around like this. It's not fair to me, it's not fair to you, and it's not fair to everyone. Especially Ron. He's my best friend and I don't like the thought about going behind his back," that voice sounded familiar..  
  
There was silence.  
  
"But, Harry, you know he's going to take it all wrong. He's going to be so upset,"  
  
Draco heard a small gasp come from Ginny. He looked over at her and a look of sadness had washed over her face.  
  
"Well, it's evident that you didn't know about Potter and the Mudblood. I'm quite surprise myself. This is my detention to give out,"  
  
She didn't have time to stop him before he stepped out into view of the two they were spying on.  
  
"Well, well, well. Very touching, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to give you two detentions," he said, crossing his arms.  
  
"What are you talking about Malfoy? You're out too,"  
  
"Ah, but I have night patrol. I'm supposed to be giving out detentions. Professor Snape will be notified and will give you further information on when you will serve it. Now, I suggest that you go up to your dorm and finish your love fest there,"  
  
Harry's mouth opened slightly and Hermione had a small look of fear on her face.  
  
"How long were you there?"  
  
"Long enough,"  
  
Harry made a small growling sound which Draco found quite funny, but Hermione held him back.  
  
"Come on, Harry. Don't waste your energy,"  
  
And with that they headed back down the opposite way.  
  
He felt Ginny presence beside him again and he didn't say anything. He was listening very closely to their surroundings. It sounded like some one was coming down the hall from behind them. He heard hushed voices.  
  
"I think that's professor Vexsta...come on, we've got to hide," he said quickly.  
  
"What are you talking about, WE'RE night patrol, we can't get in trouble," she looked at him. He shook his head.  
  
"No, come on," she didn't move. He could hear Vexsta getting closer.  
  
"Fine, all do it my self," he said. He pushed her into the shadows and pinned her between him and the wall. He could tell she was about to protest.  
  
"Shh! Don't make a sound," he whispered urgently. Oddly, she listened to him and didn't say anything. He turned around, trying to remain silent. The next second, professor Vexsta walked into view. She had her sleeve rolled up and her wand was on her arm, it was too dark to see much more. She was whispering to someone or something. As she passed Draco could hear what she was saying.  
  
"I don't think he's going to be a problem, Master. I've almost got everything set up for Friday and then the boy is yours. The plan is flawless. You will get him this time..."  
  
"Yes, we will. Very good, Vexsta," that voice had seemed to come from Vexsta herself. Draco listened intently to 'them'.  
  
"I must go Master. I'm in danger of being seen," she said, taking her wand down. The voice didn't answer back and the hall was silent. Draco held his breath as Vexsta made her way down the hall. When she was out of site he let out a large amount of breath.  
  
"What was all that about?" he heard from behind him.  
  
"I don't know," he said, turning around. He took a quick intake of breath when he noticed how close he still was to Ginny. He had his hands on the wall on each side of her shoulders. She was still pinned between the wall and him. He could hear her quick breathing. For a tense second they didn't say anything.  
  
Without thinking, Draco bent down and pressed his lips against hers. A tingling sensation ran through his body. It was something he had never felt before and it was odd. But he didn't break away because...it felt good.  
  
Kissing Pansy was nothing like this. Him and Ginny were barely kissing (on the account that she wasn't kissing back) and it still was better.  
  
Suddenly, he felt as though something was being ripped away from him, he gave a small cry and tried to grab it back. But it wasn't there. He opened his eyes. Ginny had pushed him off of her with a lot of force and he was now several feet away.  
  
"What the hell was that?!" she asked, looking repulsed. Draco opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.  
  
"I-I don't know, you tell me!" he said. Trying to sound as though he hadn't wanted what had just happened.  
  
"Arg! You sick bastard. You haven't changed one bit within the last to weeks," she said before turning and stumping down the hall. Draco watched her leave.  
  
He leaned back on the wall, licked his lips and smiled.  
  
"Mmm... Strawberry..."  
  
A/N!: OKAY! They kissed!!!!!!!!!! Mmm.. Strawberry..lol. blah blah blah, regular note... Thank you for reviews... there will be more chapters..blah blah blah. ANYWAYZ... I'm in a pretty good mood today BECAUSE I get to go out on my dirt bike!! Woopee! Soooo. that means I have to go get all my clothes and helmet and crap so.. I'll see ya in the next chapter!!!!!! 


	5. Love, Hate, Tragedy

Hullo all!! I am SO sorry it took so long to get this chapter done! So, so sorry. I've been in school and I have homework and project ( projects…. Already?!) and I have Colonial Day coming on Thursday… god… it's all a mess and I have dinner theater and cross country… Argh! Oh well… I took little bits of my days to work on this… sorry if it didn't make your guy's expectations or something….. Hopefully the next chapter will be out much more shortly than this one. I already know what I want happening so… ya. I don't have to figure out a bunch of stuff. That's good…

I did this chapter while I was listening to my Papa Roach CD and that's why I came up with this title. I'm not sure if it has much to do with the chapter though.  Awesome song by the way, and even better CD. If none of you guys have heard it, I suggest you do (unless you're not into that type of music……)

Chapter next: Love, Hate, Tragedy 

Draco leaned back in the lounge chair, his feet propped up on the table in front of him. The common room was quiet and empty. Just how he like it. Especially right now, at times like these. Time's he felt he had just made the worst mistake in his life…and he had. Kissing her was a mistake…. wasn't it?

Draco shrugged and reached for his copy of the '_Daily Prophet_' lying next to him. He flipped through the pages lazily.

"Ministry of Magic had to rush out to retrieve Muggle girl taken hostage by Death Eater…." he muttered reading some of the articles. "BORING…"

"New Honeydukes sweets… no don't want those…" he scanned through and stopped on a page that said '_NEW! TAZER!_' declaring a new make of broomstick which was even faster than the Firebolt Three Ninety.

"Pfft! I've already GOT one of those…." He said to himself, just as someone started coming down the stairs from the girl's dormitory. He didn't look up. He could just tell by the _footsteps_ who it was.

"Hullo Pansy…" he sighed as she appeared in front of him.

"Draco, I needed to know which dress to wear to the ball. The red one with the silver sandals or the black one with the green? What do you think?" she asked.

He didn't look up and kept scrolling through the paper. "It doesn't really matter to me," he said. He couldn't almost _feel_ her frowning; thinking about what he had said.

"But, don't you want me to look good for you," her voice sounded wounded. Typical girl, Draco thought.

"Yes, that is, if I were going with you," he said smoothly, trying to keep his normal tone and not be sarcastic, like always. After last night, he couldn't be with Pansy. Even if he didn't think anything had really happened he realized just how much he _didn't_ like Pansy.

"What do you mean? Then who would I be going with?" she asked stupidly.

'_Obviously someone else, you blond.._…' he thought but instead said,

"Why don't you go with Blaise? He's open, last time I checked..…"

"But…..I'm supposed to show up with my boyfriend, what are people going to think if I don't?" she asked slowly, clearly not getting his point.

"They won't think anything because you don't have a boyfriend _to_ go with..…" he said, still not looking up from the paper.

There was a short moment of pregnant silence.

"Draco?" she spoke up finally. He raised his eyebrows to show he was listening.

"Are…..are you trying to tell me that….."

"That's _exactly_ what I'm trying to tell you, Pansy. As of this moment, you're single. And so am I," he said, finally looking up. '_And now I'm wide open for Ginny_…..' someone in the back of his head said. Draco frowned, where had that come from? 'Wide open for Ginny…..' yeah right!

Pansy was staring at him in shock.

"I think you'll need your privacy now….." he said, smirking. He got up from his chair and carefully made his way up to the boy's dormitories, making sure that he didn't make eye contact with Pansy who seemed about ready to burst into tears.

Back in the boy's dormitories Draco sat back in his bed, still holding his copy of '_The Daily Prohpet_'.

He couldn't really see _why_ had had just broken up with Pansy….. there wasn't _really_ a reason except…..

"Gods Ginny….. what did you _do _to me? You stupid girl," he asked to himself in the dark of the soft candlelight. How was he supposed to act around her? Should he ignore it and pretend it didn't happen? Should he pretend it was all a big mistake and shouldn't be paid attention to? Draco laughed slightly when he realized that that was a '_pretend_' he had been thinking of. How was he supposed to pretend, even to himself, that he didn't like it?

~*~

"We decided that it's becoming a hassle to tell you of your detention assignments every day so we made a planned out schedule for the next two weeks," Professor McGonagall looked at the two students in front of her; both eerily quiet. She handed Ginny a piece of parchment and did the same to Draco, who was standing right next to her. 

"If either of you have any questions just come to Professor Snape or myself," she continued. Ginny nodded and saw Draco do the same. She looked over at him and, although she knew that he could feel her eyes on him, he didn't return her gaze. He stood rather stiffly and seemed very uncomfortable.

_Good_, Ginny thought. _He doesn't deserve to be comfortable. He had no right to do what he did last night_….. (A/N: lol…..)

But what had possessed him to do it? Arg! Ginny could barely bring herself to look at him (although she had done so just a few seconds ago). Stupid, stupid Draco.

It was so….. there was only one word for it….. disgusting –

And nasty, repulsive, gross, perverted, sickening, gut wrenching…..

Okay, so maybe there was more than one word for it. Ginny could think of a whole string of adjectives to describe what it was. And nice definitely wasn't among them.

But really it was so….. eww! She was just kissed by Malfoy. Draco Malfoy.

But why _didn't_ she like it? Didn't _every_girl want to get kissed by Malfoy? Didn't every girl in the school want to be kissed by him at least once? Ginny knew that even Hermione felt that way. Although, the bushy haired girl would never admit that as long as she lived.

Ginny stopped thinking for a minute. Did that mean there was something wrong with her?

She was still staring at Draco. He seemed extremely uncomfortable now and appeared to want to get out of there as soon as possible.

It was bad enough that he had _kissed_ her but he had to go and pin her to a wall in a dark hallway. That made it worse. At least he didn't seem to be teasing her as much today, so that was a plus.

Well, he wasn't exactly talking to her at all. Either he was just as horrified at what had happened…..or it was something else that was keeping him from speaking. But Ginny didn't even want to think about that.

~*~

Draco scanned the hall. It seemed that every student's spirits were high, especially because of the upcoming ball that next week. Draco couldn't even see _why_ there was going to be one, it wasn't as if it were the TriWizard tournament or anything. One of the prefects must have talked Dumbledore into it.

His eyes fell on Ginny for about the hundredth time that day. She was sitting next to Ron and, other than looking a bit shaken, seemed perfectly fine. Draco rested his cheek in his palm and muttered something inaudible.

_Why did I have to go kiss her?_ he asked himself. _Why? Why? Why? Why? WHY?_

A small battle seemed to be erupting in his thoughts at that very moment…..

'**Because you wanted to…."** a tiny voice said.

*_I most certainly did not!_*

'**….you liked it…'**

*_No way!….never…._.*

'**….because you like her…**'

*_I-_*

He stopped. Did he?

Of course not. It must have been one of those 'heat-of-the-moment' types of things. Were you don't really know what your doing and don't have any mental control of your actions. And you usually regret it afterward. Like he did…..

Or did he…..?

His thoughts still seemed out to get him.

'**You know it felt good…**'

*_It didn't feel good. It felt nasty and gross and wrong and….._*

'**And don't kid yourself…**'

*_Listen. Just because I like her, and just because I liked _kissing_ her, _doesn't _mean that-_*

'**Aha!** **Caught you off guard! You just said you liked it. You KNOW you liked it! She must've tasted just like sugar. Sweet, pure, innocent, su-**'

"Argh!"

Draco furiously shook his head, trying to get the voices to stop. He looked around the table quickly to make sure no one noticed. As luck would have it; some one did. Pansy raised her eyebrows in his direction. She had been watching him and followed his gaze to the Gryffindor table and a certain red haired Weasley. Her eye's widened as she put two and two together.

"It's her isn't it?! _She's_ the reason you've been acting odd…..she's the reason you're not taking me to the ball! S-she's the reason you broke up with me!" she yelled, her voice quivering. 

"Oh, yes. Yes, of course," he said, not hearing a word that had come out of her mouth because his little voices were, at the moment, trying to assure him that he was in, well, something that started with a '_L_' that Draco didn't even want to think about. Stupid voices…..he needed to get those taken care of……maybe he'd ask his father if…..

Pansy gave a yelp and stood up quickly. This got his attention.

"I can't _believe_ you!" she said, turning red. Draco looked up at her from his sitting position confused, obviously not knowing what she was talking about. Pansy turned around and stomped out of the hall before saying anything else.

"What? Was it something I said?!" he yelled after her. Half of the people at his table had turned to stare at him now but soon went back to their dinners.

"Whatever." 

~*~

Ginny sat at the crowded table. Ron was chattering away next to her with Harry and Hermione.

At the moment, they were talking about candy.

"Ooh, ooh!" Ron exclaimed, cutting into Harry's last sentence about chocolate frogs. "Have you guys tried any of Honeydukes new merchandise? Earwig Popsicles….they're the best one's of the lot, I'd say. I don't usually like anything containing bugs but the earwigs are….."

"Did you know that earwigs have two male organs?" Hermione blurted out and blushed the second she realized that she had really said that.

All three of them turned to stare at her.

"Male organs…..you mean like….a penis? They have _two _of them? Really?" Harry asked surprised. Hermione nodded shyly, Ron glared at her.

"Were did you _learn_ that?" 

"Well…..I saw it on television once….."

"Oh, well. I guess two dicks _are_ better than one….." Ron said, smiling; almost laughing. Although, he did seem a little bit confused about what a television was. Hermione's mouth flew open.

"Ron!" she shouted.

"What? What did I say….._you_ brought it up,"

It was Ginny's turn to give them some more odd information.

"She's right you know. And scientists and stuff have even found bits of 'male organs' in the females' intestines and stomach. Apparently, they've eaten them. No _wonder_ they need two….."

Ron looked completely disgusted now. 

"Ugh! I can't believe I _ate_ that stuff…..much less _liked_ it!" he said, sticking his tongue out and wiping it off with his hand furiously.

Ginny laughed and turned back to her food which, although she hadn't touched it for over ten minutes, was still hot.

"I can't _believe_ you!" someone shouted from across the hall. Ginny dropped her fork and looked around to find who had said it. Pansy had just stood up looking furious at Draco who didn't seem to know what she was talking about. 

All faces turned to stare at them. The extremely loud chatting had stopped and if it had been nighttime they most likely would have heard crickets.

Pansy quickly stormed away from the table , passing Ginny on her way out of the hall. The Slytherin stopped in front of her and gave Ginny a cold glare. Ginny looked at her, confused.

"You'll pay Weasley….. when you least expect it," she said, before exiting the Great Hall in a blink of an eye.

~*~

Four days had passed since their '_incident_' in the hall. Draco didn't seem like his old self lately. However, he did find time to still pick and nag at Ginny. Which she found utterly annoying. And, Ginny looked down at her watch; they had another detention coming up in about and hour and a half.

What were they supposed to be doing today? 

Her parchment read:

'_6:00pm. - dinner hall duty. Meet caretaker Filch at 5:45pm in the entrance of the Great Hall_.'

Great. The last person she wanted to serve her detention with. Filch.

~*~

"Another patrol duty? This is getting ridiculous. They just need to call this whole thing off….." Draco said to himself as he headed toward the Great Hall.

'**But then you wouldn't be getting the punishment that was necessary. Besides….. you get to see Ginny.**'

*_What the…….._*

Oh, great. Those little voices were back yet again. They had seemed to be invading Draco's thought's a lot more lately.

*_Hello, stupid little voices coming from somewhere inside me….._* He continued.

'**Howdy**'

Draco frowned…. '_Howdy_'… who said that these days?

*_I don't need punishment. I didn't do anything._*

'**Whatever…..**' 

Draco kept walking. He didn't notice that his thoughts were being heard by those odd little voices. He REALLY needed to get that taken care of……..

*_I wonder if I should still go to the ball….. I'd be alone….._* he frowned.

'**Yes you should go. Take Ginny, it'll be perfect.**'

*_Why would I want to take her? Why would I want to take some poor, pathetic….._* he stopped suddenly but continued……

*_Do you really think she'd go with me?_*

'**Yes, yes. And watch out, you're…..**' 

Too late.

"Oomph!" Draco ran into something and was knocked backwards.  He hit the ground with a soft '_thump_', he stared up at his 'attacker'. They were bending down to help him.

"I'm _so_ sorry, I was in a hurry and….. oh, it's only you Malfoy,"

Draco looked up at Ginny. Why did it appear that she was showing up _everywhere_?

"Well, it's nice to see you Virginia. Would you care helping me up?" he asked, trying to sound nice.

"No."

He raised an eyebrow but got up by himself. Stupid Ginny.

"Patrol duty again, eh?" he asked, brushing himself off with his hands. "You think they're getting a bit desperate?" he looked over at her as they made their way closer to where they were supposed to meet Filch. She didn't answer. She actually didn't even look at him.  

"Er….. alright then,"

~*~

Patrol. Was. So. Boring. 

'**Is it me, or do you find everything boring?**'

Draco scowled. He must be going crazy. That was the only explanation.

*_I think it's just you. And will you quit talking to me already?_*

'**We'll think about it…..**'

*_Good…. Wait a minute…. WE'LL?*_

'**Yes, there are more than one of us, if you haven't noticed…..**'

"Oh. My. God….."

"What?" Ginny asked, turning to him. Draco stared at her.

"You heard me?" he gave her a surprised look.

"Well….. ya. You were only _talking_,"

"Oh." Draco continued strolling down the hall, he put his hands in his pockets and started whistling. Not many people knew that they had detention and were supposed to be handing out MORE detentions to people not obeying hall rules. Because of this, people were giving them very odd stares. And every once and a while Draco would catch a part of someone's conversation.

"What are _Weasley and Malfoy_ doing together?"

"Isn't that Ron's sister?"

"Why's he whistling?"

"Do you think something's going on between them?"

"Maybe he's forcing her to stay with him, or else he'll do something bad to her….."

"Why is he _whistling_?"

Draco ignored all of the curious glares. But, he couldn't deny that all the attention being on him was quite fun. He also had to resist the urge to throw his arm around her and have a good laugh at all the shocked and angry expressions he would see on the other students' faces. 

Minutes passed and they hadn't given out one single detention. This was just another useless detention he had to serve. Yippy. 

~*~

Ten more minutes passed and nothing.

~*~

Thirty more minutes passed and, lo and behold, still nothing. There were _very_ few students out now, many were going back to their common rooms to retire for the night. Professor McGonagall had probably checked on them about twenty times, each visit getting the same answer. 'No, no one's broken any rules yet…..'

~*~

Forty minutes….. they were still walking. Coming down the hall were footsteps. Draco stopped (so did Ginny) to listen, hoping beyond hope that it was a troublemaker. The footsteps rounded the corner and…..

No. It was wonder boy and his stupid Mudblood girlfriend. Like _they_ would break the rules…..

They didn't appear to see Draco and Ginny and were talking in hushed voices. Draco felt Ginny go tense at the site of them.

*_God, she needs to get over him already….._*

'**I totally agree with you there, mate! 'Cause then you can go for it,**'

*_Shut up_.* he thought sharply.

'**Alright, alright….. ooh look it…..**'

 Ginny gave a small whimper as Harry led Hermione into a tiny broom closet. Draco, on the other hand shuddered at the thought of two of his worst enemies snogging in close quarters.

"Absolutely, positively, disgusting. Revolting, I'd say," he said faintly. Ginny, however, couldn't help but give a small sob.

"Shut up Draco,"  she said under her breath. He turned to glare at her.

"And why would I do that? Still in love with the Potty boy, are you Virginia?"

"I told you to _shut_ _up_ about it….."

Draco put his hands behind his head. She wanted another round to the '_Annoy Ginny Weasley Game_' then? Alright, he could play this.

"You know, he doesn't really like you….. never has. There's only one reason he ever talked to you. He had to be nice to you because you're the Weasel's sister. That's really all there is to it. I'd have thought even _You_ would have seen it by now…." 

"Will you drop it, you stupid little ferret?" she nearly screeched, her emotions getting the better of her. 

Draco had earned another point. 

"God, what a bitch….." he said, glaring over at her. Ginny gasped and her eyes widened.

"How dare you?" she said, shaking her head slightly. Ten points….

"How dare I what? Call you a bitch? Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch!" he said in a sing-song voice. "I can call you what I like because you're a poor, dirty, pathetic, little..…bitch," he said, watching with triumph, as her face grew ever redder.  More points for me! he thought. "You're worth nothing more than a Mudblood, and we all know how much that is….. _their_ worth no more than shit….."

Ginny looked absolutely ready to burst. Draco smirked at this but couldn't help noticing that her stupid hands were balling up into tight fist again. And those fist inflicted pain, no matter how much he didn't want to admit it.

And, with that, she slapped him. And it probably hurt more then when she punched him. Because he had been punched before….. but never full-out slapped. And he had never realized how much it could hurt, especially if your attacker had rings on…

Draco Malfoy: 107. Ginny Weasley: 2

"What is _wrong_ with you? First…..you kiss me. And then you try and act like nothing happened and you insult me. And you're _constantly _insulting me. Over and over, time and time again!  You never stop. You are such a….. pig! I can't believe I ever thought I'd get through this month without hitting you again. You were actually being _normal_ for a while! What ever happened to that, eh? What ever happened to being civil?!" 

Draco Malfoy: 200

As she yelled at him Draco just stood back, shocked. He gulped and leaned away from Ginny as a small child would do while getting punished. He had never imagined that Ginny could ever look so intimidating. Ever.

Ginny Weasley: 30

"You just don't know when to quit do you?! You just keep…..picking on me. Like…..like I haven't got feelings or something. Like I'm no more than some horrible, unwanted dog! I…..I _hate_ you Draco Malfoy!"

Damn. 50 more points onto her score….

Draco just simply glared at her. And then he noticed something that made his stomach dropped. Her eyes were whelming with tears and she was shaking uncontrollably.

Ginny Weasley…. 1,034. Draco Malfoy: -3

Why did he feel so…..bad all of a sudden?

Slowly, he reached his hand out towards her. She didn't really seem to notice, she was still staring at him with a look that held pure hatred.

"Oh, Ginny…..oh, god," he said softly (which surprised him), grabbing her hand, not noticing the tiny electric shocks he was getting. "I…..I'm so….."

"Don't touch me!" she said, flinging her hand out of his grasp. The tears were streaming down her face now. She took one last look at him and suddenly took off in the other direction and out of his site.

Draco just stared down the hall, not moving. He didn't even care that his face was tingling with the impact of her hit. 

"You're wrong Virginia…... you're not unwanted….." Draco said quietly, he himself not knowing what it meant. 

~*~

Ginny buried her face in her deep red pillows; her shoulders heaving up and down from her sobs. 

Ginny couldn't understand why she was getting so worked up about this, but she couldn't stop crying.

She sat in her bed for hours. By the end of the night her pillow was soaking wet; her eyes red and puffy. She was surprised no one had asked what was wrong yet. Maybe they thought that she needed her privacy because she hadn't heard anyone enter the dormitory either. 

She started to get up and wiped her eyes dry, planning on going back to the common room so people wouldn't start wondering where she was.

She felt something hard under her and reached under the blankets to pull out a small pink tube. She had worn that the night that he…..

"God, I HATE him!" she said, furiously throwing the small bottle of strawberry lip glass across her bed. It hit the thick curtains surrounding her four-poster and bounced back on to the mattress. She broke into tears again but before she could fling herself into the pillows once more she heard a loud tapping at her window. She looked up.

A large eagle-looking bird was perched on the seal, a letter clutched in its claws. Frowning, tears still rolling down her cheeks, Ginny opened the window letting it fly in.

It sat on her bed and looked curiously at her as she opened the dark green envelope. Her eyes scrolled over it and her faced to bright red with furry.

'_Ginny,_

_I really sorry about what I said. I'd like to apologize. Do you think we could meet somewhere? Please…..just come to hear me out…._

_-D.T.M'_

"Stupid Malfoy. Who does he think he is?" she asked herself as she grabbed a quill of her nightstand and scribbled down a few words on the paper right under his initials.

'_Go shallow a toad Malfoy!_'

She folded up the letter and sent it on its way.

Barely five minutes passed before she got a reply. Written right under hers.

_'Fine. I will if it proves that I'm sorry._'

She laughed slightly before remembering who the letter was from. Her anger switched back on, she hurriedly scribbled:

'_SOD OFF MALFOY!'_

Again, several minutes passed before she heard another 'whoosh' of wings. Draco's owl sat on her bed and seemed to be becoming _very _irritated.

_'Hmmm…. I wonder if Longbottom's toad will do. He's about the right size. Could choke me though, I hope you know. If I don't show up for class tomorrow…. Expect to find me up in my bed, red hand print on my face, frog legs sticking out of my throat with a big sign saying. 'It's Virginia's fault'. How's that?_

_Well, in he goes…_

_Toads are nasty creatures I tell you…. horribly disgusting. They taste like wet, mildewy rubber. With a hint of slime. Yuck…_

_See you…. I can already feel my self turning blue….._'

Ginny glared at the letter. What an idiot. A complete, stupid idiot. God, he was dumb. Did he really think anything was going to come out of sending her those letters?

Because it wasn't.

Okay, so maybe he made her laugh slightly. But only a little.

'_You do know how stupid you are, right? I don't want to talk to you. I already told you….. I HATE YOU. Okay? Get that through your lazy, conceded head. Stop. Writing. To. Me. Got that? If you do, I won't be answering it, just to warn you. I won't even read it. LEAVE ME ALONE!_

_-G. W.'_

There. That was good wasn't it? Ginny sent the letter away and sat on her bed, staring out the window. If she hadn't punched him in the first place, she wouldn't be in this mess. She needed some anger management.

Ginny decided that she'd better get down to the common room. Being around people would help her take her mind off of things. Especially things concerning Draco.

Making sure that her face wasn't red anymore, Ginny headed down the stairs. 

Harry and Hermione were on one of the couches. Hermione seemed to have been helping him try to study (she had a large Divination book in her lap) but by the looks at it, Harry had fallen asleep while she was reading. She was now staring at him with an odd look on her face. Ron was next to them at a small table and was glaring down at his chess board intently and seemed to be doing a great deal of thinking.

Ginny walked closer to him and noticed that he was muttering to himself and she caught the words 'knight', 'king', and 'e-4'. She had no idea what he was doing. 

"Erm….. Ron?"

Ron shook his head and looked up at her. "Wha?"

"What are you doing?"

He glared at her for a bit and didn't appear to have heard what she said.

"Oh. Oh, nothing," pause. "Wanna play?"

"Sure," she said, sitting down next to him. "But I'm warning you, I'm not very good. You should know that."

"Alright, alright. You wanna be white?"

"Yeah,"

Just then someone stumbled into then common room. They all looked up (even Harry) to see who it was, since the portrait had banged against the hole, causing the person to sound like they were in a hurry.

Neville was standing in front of them and appeared to be panting. He clutched his side.

"You guys….. gotta help me….. I was down by the dungeons because I had that detention with Snape," he shuddered. "and I ran into Malfoy. He….. said he'd been looking for me….. said he needed something. And now's he's ran off with Trevor and said it was important. When he was walking away….. he mentioned something about how toads tasted….." Neville's eyes had started watering now. Ginny looked up at him and bit her lip.

_Uh-oh._

~*~

Neville took the loss of Trevor _very_ hardly. Draco, on the other hand, found it horribly amusing.

"He was quite yummy you know….." he said, rubbing his stomach in a satisfied way. "I think he mighta been a bit better fried, not raw."

Neville squeaked slightly. Ginny, who was near by, gave a very annoyed looked and turned to Neville.

"Don't worry. Draco doesn't care about other people's pet much. But he would never eat a toad. He thinks himself too highly for that. Trevor will show up in a few days, I promise." Neville seemed slightly relieved about what she had just said.

Why was she still calling him Draco?

Draco smirked. The truth of the matter was that he actually _had _eaten that stupid toad (he had cooked it of course…..) And….. it was actually quite good. Once you got over the fact that it tasted rubbery, you found out that they _had_ actual taste. He should have them more often….

He stopped taunting Longbottom as someone rushed passed him. He turned to see who it was.

Professor Vexsta. 

He had completely forgotten about her. He had let Ginny get in the way of solving his mystery. Well, that certainly wasn't going to happen again.

Suddenly, Draco's brain was screaming at him. He was about to tell it to shut up when something came to his attention.

Didn't he hear her talking about something she was going to do on Friday? Her…..plan? And what was coming up just six days from now? This very Friday…..

The ball.

Where almost every student in the school would be in one major room. Not paying attention to their surroundings and dancing the night away….

It seemed like the perfect time to plan something.

Great….. how was he, Draco Malfoy, supposed to save everyone in the entire school. Not like he really wanted to but…..

Why did he want to? It wasn't as if he was Potter or something.

'**Ginny…..**'

*_Ginny? What's she got to do with it?*_

'**She influencing you, with her goodness'**

*_Her goodness….?  HA! That's a joke. The woman's hit me for God's sake….. more than once!_*

His brain shrugged. '**Fine. Don't believe me. Then what is it? Are you going soft on us?**'

*_No! I'm still perfectly evil.* _he crossed his arms_  *I'm not talking to you anymore!_*

Draco's eyes widened. Did he just think that? Maybe he really ought to get those pills from his dad. He was _arguing_ with himself. That wasn't a sign of sanity…. More like something you'd find with someone who was suffering major _insanity_.

~*~

Another day, another detention. And what was today's detention?

Cleaning up the lake. De-weeding it, de-trashing it, and de-mucking it. Yay…..

Draco slowly walked out onto the grounds. _Very_ slowly. He still had about another week of detentions to do. How was he _Ever_ supposed to live through that without Ginny killing him first? What was she going to do next….. kick him? And where exactly did that girl _learn_ all that stuff. Most likely her brothers…..

How many brothers did she actually have? Draco knew about the twins, and Weasel. And there was also that one….. Parce or….. something. Draco shrugged, it wasn't as if he needed to know.

Did she have any more though? Now it was starting to bug him. He had to know.

Quietly he approached her. She was already by the lake waiting for him and Hagrid. Draco walked up to the edge of the water.

"Er….. Virginia? How many brother's do you have?" he asked, trying to sound interested but was failing miserably. She shot him a side glance and turned back to the waters. 

"Six. There's Ron of course. And Fred and George. And then there's Percy….."

So that's what his name was…..

"After him are Charlie and Bill." Pause….. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Dunno…. I was just wondering why your family was so poor other than the lack of money….. your parents have a bloody zoo to look after. If you asked me, I would have stopped having kids after the first one. That's all you need, you know, to keep the blood line and name going. Well, it's gotta be a boy of course….."

He realized that she had stopped listening to him. No wonder her family was so indecent. He was practically giving her _tips_ on what you should do with your family and she was just letting him waste his breath on nothing. 

Fine, be that way, Virginia.

"It doesn't look like Hagrid's coming," she said finally. "We should get working just incase they send out a teacher to check up on us,"

"Yeah, yeah. Alright," he agreed. 

So, they started working. Since they weren't allowed to use magic, it was _very_ hard and _very_ dirty. 

This isn't fair, Draco thought. This is the stupidest detention I've ever had. 

So, they worked all through part of the night, not saying a word.

At the moment, Draco was tackling a particularly stubborn bush that seemed to be growing too big. 

"Stupid….. bush. I'm never going to be able to finish this….." he paused as he heard something in front of him.

"Ginny…..?" he asked slowly. Her voice came.

"What?" it was behind him. Then what was in the bushes….. 

"Did you hear something?"

She didn't answer him for quite some time, then –

"Yes. I keep hearing something coming from the forest….. I thought it was you."  
  


Draco stopped and stood up. He turned around slowly to look at her. Her eyes locked on him, a large soggy weed protruding from her hand.

"W-was it you?" He shook his head from side to side.

"No." he answered.

"D-do you think we should go see what it was?" she asked, getting up too. She walked over to him and stood just three inches from his side. He could tell she was seemed scared. He looked over at her.

"I will. You stay her just in case it really is something," he said finally.

Did he really just say that?? What was he trying to do, protect her? Great. What was the world coming to? A Malfoy protecting a Weasley?

He shook it off and slowly started heading in the direction the noises had been coming from. Ginny watched him apprehensively. He disappeared into the forest leaving Ginny alone by the lake. He didn't _see_ anything moving. And he was no longer hearing things. He stopped in a small clearing. Propped up against the tree was a broomstick.

He frowned and slowly made his way over to it. From the looks of it, it was a Tazer. Not many people were able to afford those, so whose was it? Coming closer to the broom he noticed something was etched on the perfectly shined handle. He looked down at the letters shocked.

'_Property of Draco T. Malfoy_'

"What in the….."

What was his broomstick doing out _here_. And who had brought it?

'**Ooh, bad sign. Not good, not good at all…..**' his brain started.

*_What do you know? I could have accidentally left it here….._*

'**No. You locked it up in that small case under your bed that nobody knows how to get into. Only your father…..**'

*_Don't try to tell me you think FATHER came all the way to Hogwarts, went under my bed, took out my broomstick, and went romping around the grounds on it. That's rubbish.*_

'**That's not what I'm trying to say. But it could be a trap, don't touch…..**'

Too late. Those voices sure needed better timing. 

Draco reached out and grabbed his broom. Nothing happened. He shrugged and started heading back out of the forest to Ginny.

'**Fine. But if the next time you fly it, it throws you off and you die well….. don't say I didn't warn you.**'

"Shut up," he said out loud. Ginny, who had just come into few, looked at him oddly.

"What?..... Where did you get that broom. What did you find?"

"I found my broom. Some one must have brought it out here….." he said, throwing his leg over the side of it. She ran up to him.

"Draco what are you doing?" she asked, quickly looking down at the handle of his Tazer. "I thought you said you found it out there."

"Yeah, I have to test it out now….. make sure it still works," he replied stubbornly.

"But what if someone did something to it?"

"Do you know what kind of broom this is Virginia? No one, I repeat, _no one_ could do anything to a Tazer," he said, taking off.

"But Draco….."

He didn't listen to her. He sat on his Tazer, making circles around the lake, letting the wind blow past him. He loved flying. Loved it probably more than anything in the world. It was just a wonderful sensation, flying was. You were separate from the whole world, no troubles or anything (that is unless you fell off). Draco was barely aware that Ginny was calling him.

"Draco….."

He still didn't listen.

"Draco….." she said again, her voice holding a warning in it. He didn't pay attention to her, just kept riding around in circles.

"Draco Tempest Malfoy!" she yelled. He turned around this time and sat backwards on his broom.

"What?!" he yelled back so she could hear him.

"Get down here this instant!" she said, sounding much like a mother.

"Why…..?" he asked slowly, still not looking where he was going, he had been going straight for some time now since he wasn't steering.  He saw her put her hands on her hips indignantly. Did she look…..scared?

"Just do it," Ginny said, her voice shaking slightly. Something was in the bushes behind her, she _knew_ it…… and this wasn't funny. Not one bit.

"Hmmm…..let me think about it," he put his hand to his chin and tapped it thoughtfully.

"No," he said quickly. She didn't answer him for a few seconds but suddenly her eyes grew extremely wide. For a moment Draco thought he had ticked her off again, something he was doing a lot more lately. But when she talked, she didn't sound angry. She sounded frightened…..urgent.

"Draco, watch out!" she yelled pointing over his shoulder. He rolled his eyes.

"Virginia, what is it now?" he asked, turning around to see what had alarmed her. He froze as he seemed to be getting extremely close to the whomping willow; its branches were flailing.  But he couldn't move his broom, he couldn't even move his _body_. He just stared. He heard Ginny yelling something just before…..

SMACK!

…..he collided with the mad tree. Its branches and roots entangling him. He felt himself being tossed around. The branches were smashing into his body. He felt one come in contact with his face. His hands, his back, his arms and legs…..

And, oh it hurt.

'**I told you…..'**

_*Oh, shut up will you…..*_

He fell down to the ground and landed in a heap next to his Tazer which lay unharmed thanks to the new manufacturing it had. Ginny sprinted towards him.

She knelt down next to him and gently put her hands on the side of his face, looking him in the eyes. A _very_ nice gesture for someone who was supposed to hate him. 

She brought his head in her lap at started searching for wounds. And there were many.

"Draco…..I'm sorry….."

He wanted to ask what she was sorry for but his voice didn't seem to be working properly. Ginny wrapped her arms around him to pull him up so she could see him better. Draco loosely shut his eyes. He didn't care how much her touching him actually hurt him. In an odd sort of way he liked it. He just wanted her to hold him like this forever. Draco mentally kicked himself for thinking that (which, for some reason, hurt a lot) what, was he an idiot? Besides, by the next day she was probably going to hit him again. She was only acting like this because she felt guilty..…

"I should never have distracted you….." she said, looking down at him.

"Oh, gods. It's all my fault….." she brought her hand to his face in order to search for more wounds.

She just wouldn't quit touching him; trying to make sure that he was okay. Now he wanted her to stop. Did she even have a clue what she was doing to him? Every time her hand came in contact with his face or arm small shivers ran throughout his body, riding on his nerves like they were some sort of roller coaster. And he. Wanted. Her. To. STOP.

And then again, he didn't.

And, with that thought, Draco blacked out.

A/N: 17 pages you guys… 17 pages in word!!! 17 pages of total CRAP.  That's the most I've ever written in a story. WOW! Of total NOTHING! Did any of you actually LIKE this chapter?! Please tell me if you did…Anywayz…..

This should be the 'majorly OOC chapter' huh? Well, I'm not really going for in character stuff. I'm writing this story for me…..well, and you guys…… and I wanted this to happen. So I don't want to hear a single "Draco was OOC" because I KNOW.

Sorry if I was a little harsh with the language in that one part of the story….. I'm in an awkward mood today…. don't ask…..

But I also wanted to show that even though Draco likes her… he's still not even going to be willing to be nice to her or anything and he's still the stupid bastard that he once was.

And that Ginny's still sweet and kind, no matter how horrible Draco is.


	6. Hallow Dreams and Meaningless Meanings

**23 pages guys. Aren't you so proud of me? The next chapter should hopefully take less time because I already have part of it written. I told you that it's possible for the chapter titles to change. Well, they already are. I'm not changing what happens in the story though, just how long it's going to be and the order and stuff. I won't tell you the chapter titles for the rest of the story. You have to wait.**

**There are going to be six more chapters after this one. So that's twelve chapters in all. And there won't be an epilogue because there's going to be a sequel.**

**Chapter Six: Hollow Dreams and Meaningless Meanings**

Ginny looked down at Draco's pale form. He slept unusually sound and looked rather peaceful; very opposite from what he was in real life. The real obnoxious, rude, sneering Draco that Ginny knew had slipped into a deep coma-like slumber and left this angelic form in his place. His chest slowly rose and fell 

as he breathed and every once in a while, his eyes would flutter as if he were dreaming. She didn't doubt that he was doing just that.

He made a quick movement that startled her slightly and she heard someone give a small sigh next to her.

"He's so adorable," her friend, Samantha Green said. She had had a large crush on Draco ever since she had laid eyes on him back in third year.

"Sam, you realize that you're talking about Malfoy right? He's not _adorable, he's evil," Ginny said, taking her eyes off of the object of their conversation. Her dark haired friend smirked._

"You can be both, but he's cuter than he is evil… that's for sure," she said longingly. 

"When will you see that it's not always good to tell off of looks? Looks aren't everything," Ginny inquired, looking down at Draco. He'd been asleep for nearly five days and she had come to visit him every once in a while on the account that he didn't get any visitors, not even his fellow Slytherin's came to see if their 'prince' was all right. On some occasions, Ginny would take Samantha, almost fearing for Draco's life because when Sam was around Draco, you wouldn't know what she was going to do.

"But I make acceptations for people this gorgeous. And you should too," she pointed at Ginny. "He's got his eyes on you, you know?" she said, almost sadly looking at Ginny. Ginny snorted.

"He has not," she said calmly, glancing down at him. "And how would you know, eh? Did he tell you that?"

Sam shrugged and rolled her eyes. "I just know these things. I can feel it. He did break up with Pansy you know?"

"He did?" 

"Yeah, a couple of days ago."

A soft silence fell over them as Samantha returned her gaze to Draco. She looked at his face and suddenly, a small smiled tugged at the corners of her lips. It wasn't a good smile, whenever she had it; it usually meant the Samantha was up to something.

"Hey Gin…?" she asked slowly, not taking her eyes away from him. Ginny looked down at Draco and then to her.

"What?"

"I dare you… to kiss him," Samantha put in evilly.

"_What?" Ginny's mouth hung slightly open for a moment._

"I dare you to kiss him," she said more confidently. "50 galleons says you won't."

"I will _not kiss him. Are you crazy?"_

"I would if I were you…"

"Well, of course _you would."_

Samantha sighed. "Come on, Gin. 50 galleons… that's a lot, you know."

"I know it's a lot," Ginny replied sharply. She looked down at Draco curiously. What would it be like to kiss him when he was sleeping? When he was this beautiful shining being and not cruel and horrible. It would probably be a lot different. And unlike Samantha, Ginny would be able to compare the two Dracos. She sighed.

"Alright, I'll do it."

She closed her eyes and bent down so her face was centimeters away from his. She could smell the cologne he was wearing and her lungs filled with the wonderful aroma, like warm meadows and pine trees. Draco Malfoy smelled much like some kind of lush forest… or something close at least. Ginny sighed, whatever it was, she loved it.  

"Wait!" 

Ginny pulled away from him to look at her friend. "What is it?"

"You have to keep contact for… seven seconds, and you can't just like… put your lips against his, you have to actually _kiss," she said, smirking. Ginny sighed and bent down again._

"What's with all the rules, now?" Ginny asked suspiciously. Samantha just raised her eyebrows, egging Ginny on.

"Oh, alright," as she finished saying this, her lips came in contact with Draco's and she shut her eyes. A jolt ran through her, Ginny had only felt it at times when she was particularly close to Harry. His warm lips were soft and silky under hers and the light smell of forests and freedom came to Ginny again. If she had the choice, she would have stayed in this position forever. And if Samantha hadn't been there, Ginny would have probably found herself with her arms wrapped around this sleeping Draco, again so unlike the real one. If only Draco were sleeping all the time.  

She opened her eyes and looked at Draco's face. Draco… Draco Malfoy. Right now, she was practically on top of _Draco Malfoy. Ginny gagged and pushed off of him._

"That was probably one of the most horrible, foul, disgusting things I've ever done in my life," she paused. "But I…"

Sam tried to finish the sentence for her. "Liked it?"

Ginny shot her a glance before returning her gaze to Draco. He seemed completely unmoved by the kiss and stayed sound asleep; his chest rising up and down softly. Pale moonlight glowed across his face and he had a slight smile tugging at his lips now. Not a smirk or a mocking smile that he usually had, but a soft happy smile that almost made Ginny melt.

However, she didn't answer her friend; only held out her arm firmly. "Where's my money?"

~**~**~**~**~

_Draco looked around. He was in a… well, a forest. Soft sunlight was streaming in through the tops of the trees and birds chirped all around him. It must've been spring time. He felt warm sunrays beating down on his skin and he smiled slightly. Again, his eyes roamed around his current position._

_"Where am I?" he asked, not getting a reply. He snapped his head around as he heard a few twigs break behind him. Something was coming out of the bushes. It looked like woman but she didn't seem to be very human. She didn't have a shirt on but covering her large chest was a white sash that read '**Property of Draco Malfoy'. His eyes widened as more elf-like girls followed her.**_

_"Bloody hell…" he said to himself. "Are those for me__?" He watched faintly as the girls surrounded him, chanting a soft song that made him feel hypnotized. The girls stretched their arms in front of themselves so that their palms were facing the sky. They smiled and chorused, "For you Draco," and suddenly, large currents of food appeared in their hands; all laid out on golden plates. Great stacks of galleons and sickles materialized in front of him and a huge emerald green throne showed up on his right along with several tethered unicorns. The girls chanted again, "For you Draco. We're here to bring you pleasure and happiness…"_

_"No we aren't. We're here to be maddened slaves to this beast. Why don't the rest of you open your eyes and try to see that?"_

_All heads, including Draco's, swiveled around to see who the voice had come from. They were staring directly at another elf-ish girl. But, Draco noted, this one was different from the others whom all were a light blue-purple color. This one was red, bright flaming orange-red with long flowing hair that looked like fire. She didn't have any food or gold circling her and she looked rather angry._

_"You may get everyone else to bow at your feet, you great prat, but it'll take you a lot of changing to get me," she said, huffing. Red snapped her fingers and the '**Draco Malfoy' tag disappeared and was replaced by long flowing black robes, totally concealing everything but the girls face which was surrounded by the robe's hood. Slowly, she turned around and walked to the other edge of the clearing. Draco looked from her to the other girls who all seemed maddened by her outburst and her sheer stupidity of talking bad about their owner.**_

_Something in Draco itched to go after Red, but something was helping to keep him back. It was probably the fact that there were about twelve half naked women standing in front of him offering him 'pleasure and happiness'._

_Finally, Draco made up his mind. He sat down in the middle of the slightly broken circle and crossed his legs and hands. "Okay, girls… let's get this started," he said, rather happily. The Blues smiled and instantly were handing him piles of food. Draco grabbed one of the plates and stuck his fork into what looked like mashed potatoes. He brought it to his lips and swallowed; half expecting a rich, creamy, buttery taste. Instead, he gagged; he had gotten something foul and disgusting. He spit in out onto the ground, but what landed in front of him wasn't white, soft, potatoes. He looked down in horror as small white maggots __spilled out on the dirt. He coughed and spit, making sure to get every single one out. He looked down at his plate to find that every article of food had done exactly to the same thing; turn into a small mound of horrifying bugs. Draco made a small tiny squeak and hurriedly threw the plate away from him. It smashed against a tree and the bright gold shattered and crumbled to a small pile of ashes… _

_"What are you guys trying to do… kill me?" he asked the girls. They all looked at each other and shot him a very sympathetic glance._

_"We're so sorry Draco…" one of them said as she bent down to kiss him. But, just as her lips touched, the skin on her face started to rot away and drop to the ground. He desperately tried to pull away but he couldn't; she had wrapped her now bony rotten arms around him, squeezing away all his oxygen. He gasped for air but couldn't acquire any. He felt something land on his cheek and start to crawl up to his hair, reluctantly he opened his eyes to see what it was and he took a quick intake of shocked air as he saw large insects; worms, millipedes, cockroaches, flies; swarming out of growing pits in her cheeks. _

_There was a shrill laugh from the other side of the clearing they were in. The rotting corpse got off of him and looked around to see where it had come from. He quickly took advantage of being free and stood up, stumbling away from the girls whom, all of a sudden, didn't seem so pretty to him anymore. He looked where all the others were looking._

_Red had hidden herself behind a large pine tree and was laughing hysterically at them all, clutching her side to help her get air. She noticed Draco's eyes on her and took off running, not able to stifle her laughter which rang through the forest light chiming bells._

_This time, he didn't hesitate. He ran after her, dodging through thick trees and bushes. No matter how fast he went, she seemed to be quicker and was always just barely disappearing into the lush trees. _

_"Wait!" Draco called after her. It didn't seem to help much; he had only succeeded in making her move faster. _

_Suddenly, Draco found himself thrust into another clearing. Right at the edge of a water fall… but there hadn't been a river any where. The crystal clear water seemed to fall right from the heavens. Its cool mist was sprinkling Draco's face and he closed his eyes momentarily before looking around for Red. She was standing at the edge of the cliff with her arms spread out to her sides. Her head was still completely concealed by the cloak. Slowly, Draco walked up to her._

_"Who are you?" he asked her. He walked across the small clearing and stood right behind her, waiting for her answer. He grabbed her shoulder._

_"Hey, answer me…"_

_She turned around swiftly and smiled at him. Draco gave a small shocked gasp. It wasn't Red any more it was…_

_"Weasley__…!?"_

_She smiled again and wrapped her arms around him, pressing her lips into his. Her mouth moved over to his ear._

_"Catch me, catch me and I'll be yours. Don't let me fall…" she whispered to him. He desperately tried to kiss her again but she pulled away and headed back to the edge. He reached out for her almost longingly._

_"No... wait, please…" he asked more softly than he had wanted. She turned around for a last time and gave him a small wink before throwing herself off the side._

_            "No, Virginia!!" he jumped forward and grabbed her hand just as she was about to disappear down the side of the cliff. He peered over the edge. He wasn't holding Ginny any longer, it was a small bundle of black robes. He lifter it over the edge and peered down at it. He was startled as it gave a small quiver and let out a tiny cry. _

_"What in the…"_

_Slowly he unwrapped the bundle. It started moving more, almost as if it had arms and legs. Draco peeled away the last layer of robe and his eyes widened. In his arms was a very small baby with silvery hair and soft grey-brown eyes. Some odd feeling swept through him as Draco realized that he had just saved this tiny bundle from a horrible fate. A small smile flashed in his eyes as the little boy reached up and grabbed his finger. He looked down at its tiny fingers, delicately wrapped around Draco's larger one. The kid was adorable, and Draco didn't usually think many things other than himself were very adorable. His eyes roamed across the baby and stopped on his tiny Quidditch robes. A small label was on the chest: '**Property of Draco Malfoy'. He looked down at it confused. There was a soft whistling in the air as the wind began to blow harder. Leaves flew past him and his hair began to sway. The wind was picking up, getting stronger by the second. Draco shivered as a branch broke off the tree and swept passed him, nearly hitting the little boy. He clutched him to his chest, trying desperately to protect him. But it was to late, the wind gripped at the little boy, ripping him out of Draco's arms. Draco tried to reach out and grab him but couldn't. The child was thrown to the ground and started to tumbled to the edge of the cliff.**_

_"No… **no**__!" Draco ran after him and urgently grabbed the edge of the robe just as it toppled over the side like Ginny had. He let out a small sigh of relief as he hung half off the cliff, clinging to the baby. Draco's arm gave a bit, the bundle seemed to be getting heavier as he sat there. It was weighing him down, almost as if beyond the shadows of the great hole, where the water was disappearing into, was a vast vacuum like structure. He tried to hold on but couldn't, the boy slipped from his fingers disappearing in to the darkness. _

_"No…" _

_The baby was going back to where ever Ginny had gone. The wind was pulling at Draco, trying to force him down into the hole. But he resisted. What was down there?_

_A soft beautiful voice was calling up to Draco. He recognized it as Ginny's. He tried to see where it was coming from, but it seemed as though the voice were coming from the air itself; wrapping Draco in the melodic sound._

_She repeated her earlier words: "Catch me, catch me and I'll be yours. Don't let me fall…" However, here she added something that shocked him somewhat. "Don't let them take me… I don't want us to lose you…please, Draco…"_

Draco shot up, his chest falling up and down rapidly. He reached out in the darkness for his blankets and wrapped them around himself. He was having trouble catching his breath. His eyes were still adjusting to the lighting of the room so he was still completely blind. An aching feeling settled in his chest as he remembered parts of the dream. "Oh, hell…" he mumbled to himself as he buried his face in his knees to tried and block out the swirling colors and shapes that he was starting to see.

"What did you say Malfoy?" Draco turned around. It was that voice, that wonderful voice. Ginny was sitting next to his small hospital wing bed and she looked at him curiously. 

"What are you doing here Weasley?" he snapped, trying to make up for himself. Ginny looked slightly taken aback.

"Well, I was only checking up on you… I wanted to see if you had come around yet. I guess I'll go then if you're in such a bad mood…" she turned to leave. He wasn't going to let her go this time. There weren't any naked ladies holding him back.  He grabbed her arm.

"Wait a minute…erm… how long have I been here?" he asked, trying to think of a way to get her to stay. She stopped and turned around to look at him; glancing down at his hand uncomfortably. 

"Six days…" she said slowly, trying to pull her arm away from his. He didn't let her go, instead he tightened his gripped but released slightly as he realized he was hurting her.

"And that would make today…?"

She raised her eyebrows. "Friday… you need to learn how to bloody count Malfoy…"

"It's not that I don't know my days, Weasley. If you've been unconscious you'd know that the mind kinda loses track… you know, not being awake and all…"

Draco sighed and looked around the room. Suddenly, he sat up; ignoring the fact that he was feeling extremely dizzy and his vision had started blurring again. "What time is it?" he asked urgently. She frowned but looked down at her watch. Her eyes flickered back up to him before returning the floor where they had been staring for the past few minutes.

"6:43…"

"Oh, dear god…" Draco muttered, throwing his head into his hands. 6:43. And _what time was the dance starting?__ 6:00 p.m. For all he knew, everyone in the whole castle aside from him and Ginny could already be dead. Well…it's not like he __really cared but still…_

Ginny was still talking and it didn't seem like she had finished her earlier sentence.

"Yep…6:43 a.m.!" she chirped. Draco's head snapped up and he flashed her an evil glare.

Draco thought for a moment before talking again. "Ginny, I have to ask you a question, and you have to answer me truthfully, and I don't care if you think its stupid okay? Just answer…"

Ginny looked apprehensive but slowly nodded. She bit her lip as if whatever he was going to ask might hurt her. Draco stared at her for a minute before shaking it off and continuing.

"Has Professor Vexsta been acting odd lately? While I was here? _Anything out of the ordinary?" he asked slowly. It looked like she was going to a reply with how stupid that was but stopped; an odd expression playing on her face._

"Actually…" she seemed as though she didn't want to admit this. "She… she has a little bit…"

Draco sat up in his bed immediately, accidentally knocking his wand off the nightstand. It clattered to the floor but he could care otherwise, his eyes were locked on Ginny and she seemed a bit uncomfortable.

"W-why?" she asked in a meek voice.

"Just… how _has she been acting strange?"_

"Well, she seems a bit more… jumpy than usual. And she's always looking around her like someone's going to jump out and attack her or something. She seems really nervous too, like the other day she was grading papers and had this cup of coffee. I walked up behind her and tapped on her shoulder," she paused and looked around the room. It seemed that she had just noticed that she was in a room all by herself with Draco and she looked even more uncomfortable. "Well, she about jumped fifty feet before she realized that is was me. She also seems to be… anxious for something." Ginny paused and looked at him cautiously. "Malfoy… there's nothing going on, is there? Is there, Malfoy?"

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "I was _trying to tell you earlier, but you were being a real bitch about everything… saying I was spying on a teacher and whatnot," he said casually. Ginny's eyes flamed and her sympathetic expression that she had earlier had completely disappeared. She clenched her teeth._

"Listen, _Malfoy, I __wasn't being a 'bitch' about everything. You __were spying on a teacher and if you had been caught you would have gotten in trouble. I merely helped you. Just like I helped you back on the grounds. If I hadn't called for someone, you might have been dead or…or something! You had a concussion you know - and several broken bones, much less internal __bleeding. You need to start respecting me more, Malfoy. Or you'll find that I won't be there the next time you __need help,"_

Draco scowled and narrowed his eyes. "I don't need help from you, _Virginia Weasley. People would __pay to help me… and you don't have enough money to do so. You don't even have enough money to help your __family. So lay off with all the bloody lectures already!" Draco found himself getting angry._

**Oh great. I've got to come save you again, don't I? **

_What do you mean 'Save'?_

**Just watch.**

Slowly, Draco felt himself reaching over and grabbing Ginny's hand. She glared down at his as though it were an awfully disgusting slug; her lip slightly curled.

"I'm… sor - sorry," he found the words hard to form, quite possibly because they weren't his. "Hey… listen Gin, about the other night… in-- in the hall…" his voice seemed to be caught in his throat. He wasn't used to this, Draco Malfoy _didn't make apologies. Maybe in letters, but never to someone's face. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with oxygen. "I'd like to say that I'm really sorry. And you don't have to accept that apology but I just want you to know that I didn't really mean anything I said. No, Potter doesn't dislike you; no, I actually don't think that you're worth less than a Mudblood. Everything was just a game to get you angry and well, it worked didn't it?"_

_Am I really saying this? This isn't me…_

Ginny looked as if she couldn't believe her ears. "And I'm sorry." He paused and his voice in his head seemed to have just realized something. It held a mischievous tone when it spoke.

**Why don't we kill two birds with one stone, shall we? You don't have a date to the ball and I'm betting anything that she doesn't either…**

_No… please__ don't do this to me…_

 "Do…do you think you'd like to go to the ball with m…"

_            Oh, I hate you…_

Ginny stood up very suddenly and laughed, the same laugh that Red had in the dream; bell-like and mocking. "Are you _serious? Me… go with __you? You're bloody kidding me! After everything you've done to me, you think you can apologize and everything will be all better just like that?" she said, snapping her finger. "I know you have something up your sleeve, Draco Malfoy. You wouldn't want to take me otherwise. Apparently, however highly you think of yourself, I'm not good enough for you. Just a poor filthy Weasley. I'm getting out of here. It seems that, you don't need my help either. I don't think anyone can help you… no one can save you from yourself, your horrible self. You need to get over the fact that you're not better than everyone else, that you're __worse than them. All of them."_

And with that, Ginny Weasley disappeared through the hospital wing doors.

"Fine… be that way, _Weasel!" he shouted out as she left…_

Draco stared into the darkness of the room slightly horrified. He was certain that that hadn't been him a few minutes ago. Draco Malfoy didn't talk like that. Draco Malfoy didn't ask Weasleys to the ball and he _certainly never got rejected. That kind of stuff didn't happen. _

**Well… clearly I didn't help you much, mate. She must have been right.**

_What do you mean, you didn't help me much? You… you made me say all that didn't you?_

**Well… yes. You see, every time you've said something even particularly nice… that has been me. The good side of you. 'Good Draco' if you'd like to call me that. And that bit was I nice example back there. Yes, I know there isn't much of me left but I can still overpower the bad in you, you know? And every once and a while, you say something nice all by yourself… which usually shocks me so much I can't say anything good for a while and you usually end up ruining what ever kind thing you said with something five times worse. **

Draco stared at the door and didn't answer for a minute. Suddenly, his voice seemed to just have remembered something.

**You… called her _Gin. The voice sounded slightly shaken, unlike it was a few seconds ago._**

_What? What did I call her?_

**Gin, you great prat… _Gin. I'm not even going to make fun of you for this one… I - I think this is serious because… I didn't tell you to say that, Draco. This time the voice sounded very solemn. Draco frowned. Had he… had he __really called her Gin? And not the usual 'Weasley' or even 'Virginia'? He blinked as he looked at the hospital wing door. _**

_You -- you think what's __serious? What are you talking about? If you made me say all that than I didn't__ call her Gin. It would have been you._

**No, you have input on what I make you say and I would have said 'Ginny'. You have a thing for her don't you? The voice asked flatly and Draco could practically see 'Good Draco' crossing his arms indignantly. **

_No… but, when he thought this, it wasn't a quick 'no' as in 'of course not! What are you bloody thinking?!'  it was more of an __uncertain 'no'. Almost as if it had a question mark at the end. _

**One: you apologized, you usually don't apologize to anybody (yes, that was me but you still had some say in it…). Two: you called her Gin and that was all you. Three: you asked her to go to the ball with you (again… me, but I know you really wanted her to) and were disappointed when she said no and left you…**

_I…_

**Shh… hold on a minute, I'm on a roll here. Four: You kissed her… and liked it and I had nothing to do with that, which to this day still shocks me. Five: You're not acting half as mean as you used to, and that's not entirely me either. (_Hey!_****)****  Six: You find yourself thinking about her, even at the oddest moments… like during potions class when you're _supposed  to be taking notes. Seven: …_**

_Okay, okay… I get it. I think I actually get what you're trying to say. You can quit with the sodding check list.._

Draco sat back into the pillows and closed his eyes, ready to take a nice long nap_. However, 'Good Draco' seemed to want to carry on the conversation._

**Now, about that dream…__**

_What dream? Draco asked sleepily._

**Oh, wake up… you've been asleep for the last six days.**

_I don't care… I'm surprisingly tired._

**Anyways, that dream you _just had. I think there's a reason that you had it._**

_As in, to keep my brain occupied so that it doesn't die of boredom?_

**Oh that would be _tragic, it would. He put in sarcastically._**

_Shut up._

**What I _mean is, that I think it has some meaning to it. I think that you should go to Professor Trelawney and ask her to give you an interpretation, I remember her saying she could do it once…_**

_No, there is no way I'm going to that old twit and telling her about the dream I just had. No way…_

**Yes, come on. We're going to her right now…**

_No, I will not._

**Am I going to have to force you?**

_Yes you will. And I'll go kicking and screaming the whole way._

**Oh, come one, do it yourself. It'll make things easier on the both of us…**

_No._

**Yes.__**

_No._

**Yes.**

_No…_

**No.**

_Yes… no wait! I take that back!_

Good Draco laughed. **You can't take it back after you already said it. We're going.**

_Damn… fine, I'm going then. _

~**~**~**~**~

Ginny plopped down in a chair by the fire. Several students were still occupying the common room. Ron and Harry were playing Exploding Snap and Hermione was at the table with them; a large book opened in front of her. Did Ron know about Hermione and Harry yet? Ginny had known for a while now that her brother had a thing for their bushy haired friend. How would he take it when he found out? Ron had always been the jealous type, he didn't like sharing things with people. Perhaps it was better that they hadn't told anyone about them yet. Thank God Draco hadn't told anyone either. It was somewhat of a miracle that he didn't though, Ginny was slightly relieved with whatever made him do it.

Draco.

Draco had just apologized. And it sounded as if he _really meant it. As if he didn't like that he had hurt her. And aside from that, he had asked her to the ball. Which actually made her quite ticked off. He must've thought he could get any girl that he wanted. Well, she wasn't going to give in that easily. However, it __would have been better if she had a date in the first place. Then she wouldn't have had the urge to go back to the hospital and tell Draco that she __would go with him. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples with her fingers slowly. She needed some alone time, and sitting in the common room was not a way to get it._

Then, there was the question of 'Why was there so many people in the common room? It was only 7:00 in the morning.' But, that might also be because of the ball, people were just to excited to sleep. 

Ginny sighed and put her feet up on top of one of the tables next to her. Someone tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around quickly.

            "Oh, it's only you Dean. You scared me…"

            "Sorry, didn't mean to," he said, sitting down in the chair next to her.

            "That's alright. Er… was there something you wanted to talk to me about?" she asked curiously. Dean bit his lip.

            "Actually. I – I know this is _really late and if you don't want to it's perfectly fine with me. It's just, I don't know if you already have a date and…"_

            "Dean, are you asking me to the ball?" Ginny asked softly, looking over at him. He looked into the fire and then back at her.

            "Yes?"

            Ginny smiled. "Alright, then. I'll go with you, you're much better than Malfoy…" Ginny added the last part as an afterthought, she hadn't actually meant to say it. It had just come out.

            "Um… thanks?" he seemed slightly confused by what she had said, Ginny decided to bring it out further. Suddenly, Ron looked up from Harry and Hermione.

            "Dean, I hope you didn't just ask my sister to the ball..." Ron said slowly. Dean looked at him apprehensively.

            "No, no. Of course not, I wouldn't dream of it…"

            "Good, because then you'd be in store for the worst arse kicking of your life…"

            Dean smiled. "Okay, okay. I get it. Never ask your siblings out on a date, but does that include Bill too? Because last time I…"

            "Oh, shut it…"

            Dean turned back to Ginny and smiled weakly. "Let's not tell your brother, then…" he whispered. 

~**~**~**~**~

            Draco paused in front of the entrance to Professor Trelawney's room. His hand was half way in the air in a fist, inches from her door. He frowned.

            _Do I have to do this? He asked stubbornly._

            **Of course you do. Now, go. Or I'll force you; kicking and screaming the whole way.**

**_Oh, alright._**

_            Draco brought his hand in contact with the door and knocked loudly several times. He waited and after a few minutes the door opened a tiny crack. Professor Trelawney's large spectacles peered out at him._

            "Yes, dear?"

            "Um… can I ask you something?"

            Trelawney smiled. "You just did."

            "Oh, well… I…"

            "You came here for a dream reading, did you not? Come in, I _do do those, which is what you were going to ask…" she motioned him to follow her into the room. Draco quickly obeyed._

            _Did she just get it right?_

**            I think so, maybe we were right in coming here in the first place.**

**            "Now, if you please take a seat. I'd like this not to take too long as I have a meeting after this," **

            Draco took a seat in a large bean bag chair. He looked up at her.

            "Let's start right away. First, I'd like you to describe your dream to me in great detail. Everything that happened." Draco's mouth opened.

            "Everything?" she nodded.

            "_Everything that happened, if you will."_

            Draco looked at her small fireplace. He didn't want to describe everything, he didn't want to describe _anything._

**            Oh, here we go again. Just let me do the talking.**

**            And, right after that, Draco found himself telling everything about the dream to the professor. Well, maybe Good Draco actually came in handy every once and a while. Trelawney listened closely, every once in a while nodding and muttering to herself. When Draco was finished she sat up**

            "Alright, let's start from the beginning, shall we? You're in a forest, it's peaceful and calm. That probably represents your life. After you notice 'Red' it become a bit more chaotic. That could mean something along the lines of your life having a strange twist as of the late…"

            Draco nodded in agreement here. Almost falling for a Weasley was _definitely a strange twist. She continued._

            "Now, back to the 'Blues'. You're used to everything being handed to you; women, money, power… but it causes you great disturbances when someone rebels, hence the 'Red' girl. But, you don't take to running after those things challenging you unless there is a real reason. That's why you don't go after her at first and settle with what's easily acquired. Now, the food and all the girls starting to rot and all of a sudden lose their appeal signifies that although you get all that you could possibly want, you're not happy when you get it. It's not what you're looking for and makes you particularly disgusted. Red notices this and finds it humorous. Now, 'Red' can either stand for an object or a person. Do you know which of those it might be…? It'll help me in deciphering the rest of the dream."

            "Virginia…" Draco said without any hesitation. Good Draco sighed.

            **You do realize that you just said that _out loud, right?_**

**            _Uh-oh…_**

_            **'Uh-oh' is right you great prat…**_

**            A small wave of panic swept through him as a smile lit up Trelawney's bug-like eyes.**

            "You've got a thing for the young Weasley, eh? Well, that's quite alright," she put in, patting his hand lightly. "I don't reveal anything my visitors conceal in me… your secret never leaves this room." Draco stared at her.

            _What is this 'thing for Ginny' that everyone is talking about? He asked himself._

            "Okay… onward. You go after Red but you can't catch her. This means that you find Virginia, whom is Red's real life counter part, particularly hard to get. She's a rebel and won't fall for what everyone else is. You have to work for her like her dream self says; you'll have to make great changes to get her. Apparently, she's not happy with who you are the moment."

            **Gee, I wonder why….**

**            "Now from this point on, the dream is pertaining to the future. The waterfall stand for happiness, obviously you're happy when she lets you reach her. When she asks you to catch her and not to let her fall, that can mean two things. Either it's symbolic like, when you get her; don't let her go because it'll mean forever, or it could be in a more literal sense. She's warning you that you'll have to save her sometime in the near future. Maybe even something as simple as catching her from a large fall. Anyways, she then falls into the pit, and you're left with a baby. In dreams, a baby means several things. It could be that you're left with a large burden or that you'll get a very rewarding surprise. The boy being labeled as your 'property' and then being sucked down after Virginia means that you'll lose something very special to you. In the end, you hear Virginia's voice again and it's reminding you that you're very capable of losing her," the professor took a deep breath. "Oh yes, and the fact that you try to kiss her after she's pulling away means you have deep feelings for her. Well, that's about it. Anything else?"**

            Draco stared in mute horror. None of this could be right… and yet, it made perfect sense.

            Trelawney seemed to read his mind. "The truth hurts, sweetheart. But, then again, sometimes it helps make us better people."

            "C-can't we just pretend that the dream didn't actually mean anything and that my brain was just screwing with me?" he asked, pleadingly. She shook her head slowly.

            "I'm sorry, but I don't misread dreams. Maybe palms, but _never dreams."_

            "Oh… alright. Thank you, Professor," Draco said, standing up after the short meeting.

            "Anytime dear."

            As Draco neared the door he turned around one last time. "Remember, it never leaves this room…please," All Professor Trelawney did was smile. 

            Back outside Draco felt much better than he had in the class room. Mostly because the room had been so stuffy and the air was clear and breathable out here. He thought about her explanations of the dream. He was either going to be left with a large burden or a great surprise. He'd take the surprise over that any day.

            Without looking where he was going, Draco ran into something solid. He was knocked backwards slightly. He shook his head and looked around to see what it was.

            Speaking of surprises…

            "Weasley…oh, um… I need to talk to you," he said slowly, deciding that this would be then best time to ask her again, when his brain was actually working. Ginny narrowed her eyes in his direction.

            "I already have a date, Malfoy," she said quickly, not looking him directly in the eyes.

            _She already…she's…_

            "_What?"_

            "I'm going to the ball with Dean," she rose her chin up defiantly and her voice was calm. Draco quickly regained himself.

            "That… that's not what I wanted to see you for," he said a-matter-of-factly. "Why would I care if you're going with Thomas? It's none of my concern," his words were harsh and she backed up slightly.

            "I just thought…"

            "No, you didn't think." His voice was crackly and sounded tired. He grabbed her arm and dragged her in the direction of the library. "Now, I have something more important to discuss with you…" 

~**~**~**~**~

            The noise of the great hall was just too much for Draco. He pushed his food around his plate, annoyed. He wasn't very hungry at the moment. He glanced up and looked over to the Gryffindor table to where Ginny was sitting. She gave him a slightly knowing smirk and returned to her dinner. What if people found out it was them? Draco would probably end up with another months worth of detentions. And Ginny? Technically, she couldn't get in trouble since she didn't actually do anything. She just watched him set the Dungbombs up; "accidentally" not telling anyone. So, she hadn't been the criminal, just a witness. Draco hoped that excuse was good enough. He sighed. Nobody realized how much he had just saved them a few nights ago. And of course, he wasn't recognized as a hero. No one knew it was him. And if they did, he wouldn't be praised… just punished. No one had known exactly what was happening except that they all were desperate to get out of that packed great hall as fast as they could. Who would want their brand new dress robes to get ruined?

            Not that it had mattered at all to Draco. He hadn't had a date. Ginny, on the other hand, was positively horrid about the fact that he had screwed up hers with Dean. Draco didn't know that Ginny had _liked Dean in the first place._

            _I'm better for her… and she knows it. She's just scared of me. Not that I know why… I can't see why anyone would be scared of me…_

******Yeah… neither can I.**

            After a few minutes, the dinner started to disappear and was replaced by dessert. Draco looked up to see if there was anything good. Ice cream, brownies, fruit; apples, bananas, oranges, grapes…

            "Strawberries! I love strawberries. Blaise, pass me the strawberries," he ordered sharply to the dark haired boy. All Blaise did was stare at him blankly.

            "Er… what?"

            Draco sighed. "I told you to pass me the strawberries you twit. Now do so kindly…"

            Again, Blaise just stared at him. "I thought you _hated strawberries,"_

            Draco rolled his eyes. "Who said _that? I don't remember saying __that. I think that I'd remember saying something as ri__diculous as __tha-"_

            "But you did say it. You were talking about it only the other day. You've always hated strawberries. Since when, all of a sudden, have you started liking them?"****

            Draco frowned. "I dunno… just recently I guess."

            "Right…" Blaise shrugged and grabbed the bowl. "Here you go then."

            "_Thank you," Draco said courtly. He grabbed the strawberries and heaped them onto his plate; Blaise, the whole time, staring at him curiously._

            **Hmm… strawberries. Now where have I heard that before…**

**            _I don't know what you're talking about, Goody Tempest. Draco thought innocently._**

_            **Oh, is **__that my name now?_

**            _Well, if you want it so badly, then yes._**

            Draco continued with his strawberries. After a few minutes, he noticed that a tall shadow had darkened the table in front of him. He frowned and turned around slowly to see what it was. He came face to scary face with Professor Snape… and he didn't look happy. Draco gulped.

            "Uh… sir, is there anything you want to talk to me about?" he asked timidly. Snape smirked. Blaise looked over at Draco inquiringly.

            "What did you do this time?" Blaise whispered. Draco shot a side glance at him.

            "Shh… I'm not sure yet."

            Snape started. "Mr. Malfoy, if you'd please come with me. I'd like to talk to you about something. And I think you know what it is…"

            Draco desperately looked around him. He glanced at Ginny again from across the room and noticed that she was watching them. She met his eyes and her expression told him that he was totally and utterly… busted. Draco gulped again.

            "Alright sir. But I don't have a clue what you're talking about,"

            "Nice try, I'm afraid I can't let you get by on this one. Was there anyone else involved in your little prank that you'd like to notify me about?"

            Draco looked around slowly again. Back to Ginny. She looked at him and started shaking her head back and forth very slowly mouthing a large "No." with her lips. Harry glanced at her oddly, noticing her behavior. Draco just couldn't get her in trouble too. It would only make her angrier at him. He couldn't. If he wanted her to like him… he _couldn't. And yet…_

            Draco grinned at her evilly. If he was going down, he was taking everyone with him. Starting with her. She _had, unfortunately for her sake, turned him down… more than once. She had put herself in this position._

            "Yes!" Draco said so loudly that some people's head's turned in his direction momentarily. "Weasley! Weasley was with me, too! She helped me plan it _and place the bombs."_

            "Young Virginia, eh?" Snape smiled and Draco nodded furiously. "Alright then, let's see what she has to say…"

            "You are such an evil bastard, Malfoy…" Ginny hissed through clenched teeth as they made their way down the hall. Draco smirked and continued to look at Professor Snape's back.

            "I know… and the women in the fandom world _adore me for it…" Ginny rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I bet they… wait a minute, what are you talking about? Fan…"_

            **Yeah, what _are you talking about?_**

**            "…dom? What is that?"**

            _I actually have no clue what it is…_

_            "Oh that… it's a secret. You're not allowed to know," he said mockingly. Ginny glared. "Secret my arse…"_

            **Draco, I think you're a little more insane than we had originally thought…**

            In front of them, Snape gave a large sigh. "Will you two be quiet. You sound like a couple who's been married for a _very long time…"_

            Draco glowered. Ginny pouted.

            After a few minutes…

"That was the worst idea you've ever had in your life, Malfoy. And now you've gotten both of us in trouble… _again. We're back where we started a month ago."  _

~**~**~**~**~

Four days ago while in the library…

~Draco flopped his feet up on top of the table and crossed his legs. He shot a side glance at Ginny who was looking around the library nervously.

"We don't have much time Weasel, what are we going to do? The dance starts at 6:00, you know," Draco put in hurriedly.      

"I know… I just – I don't know what we should do. None to the teachers will believe us and we don't have time to go to Dumbledore."

Draco sighed dramatically. "Then what? There's got to be some way… we could stall her," he looked at Ginny to see if the idea passed with her. She shook her head, banishing the thought.

"That won't work, she'll know something's up…"

Draco sat up immediately and turned to Ginny. "I got it!"

She raised her eyebrows curiously. "What?"

"Dungbombs! Nine; one for each corner, four spread out in the middle and one by the entrance. It'll clear everyone out and I still get to wreak havoc!"

She stared at him bewildered. "Malfoy, that's so crazy it might just work…"~

~**~**~**~**~

            "Yeah, I have to admit it was… but you couldn't come up with anything better."

            "If you had given me a little more time I could've," she said. Draco looked at her with irritation.

            "We didn't _have time… that's the whole thing,"_

            They continued following Snape until the reached his office down in the dungeons. Somewhat reluctantly, the two of the followed him in. Snape sat down behind his desk and motioned toward two chairs in front of it. Draco sat down first and then Ginny plopped down next to him. There was a short minute of silence before…

            "You two know that you're in a right bit of trouble here…" he shook his head slightly. "Setting off Dungbombs in the middle of the school dance… what were you _thinking?"_

            Draco stammered. "I… well, you see… we...."

            "…had too," Ginny finished for him. "We had no other choice,"

            Professor Snape folded his hands as patiently as he could. "And why was that Miss Weasley?"

            Ginny froze. She looked over at Draco. "We… didn't want to make a scene…?" Snape interrupted her.

            "Didn't want to make a scene?! I think sending over 200 students running out of the great hall all caked in the _lovely fumes of Dungbombs is certainly a scene, Weasley."  _

            Ginny cringed while Draco gulped for about the tenth time that night.

            "What's our punishment going to be Professor?" he asked. Snape sighed.

            "Seeing as you still have one last detention to spend tonight, it seems a waste just to give you another. However, I am going to have to take points from your houses…" Snape swallowed heavily. "_Both of your houses,"_

            "How many?" Draco asked weakly.

            "A hundred."

            Ginny gasped. "But Professor… I didn't… just asked Draco. He'll tell you the truth," 

            Something ran through Snape's mind quickly before he answered her. He frowned. _Did she just call him "Draco"…? However, he didn't comment on it._

            "Miss Weasley, don't start with me… I don't want your justifications,"

            "But _Professor I…"_

            Draco glared at her,"….didn't have anything further to say. Isn't that aright, Ginny?"

            _And did he just call her "Ginny"__??? What is the world coming to? Snape blinked. He didn't know what was going on… and he didn't want to. It would have just been safer not to ask. And yet…_

            "_What did you call her?" he asked before he could stop himself. Virginia calling him Draco was bad enough but him calling her __Ginny? How long had this been going on for… and why? Snape scratched his head. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to give them all those detentions. It must've done something to their brains. He'd have to talk to Minerva about further ways of punishment which wouldn't include out-house bonding. Draco seemed to have frozen._

            "I…"

            "…called me Weasel," Ginny finished. "It's a horrible nickname he seems taken to… for me _and my brother."_

            "Then what did _you call…"_

            Draco interrupted him. "Anyways, if you're finished with our punishment now, I'd like to ask you a question _about our detention tonight. Exactly where is it? All the paper says was to report to you for further instructions at 6:00. Which is…" Draco looked down at his watch quickly. "Now. So, what is it, then?" Draco raised his eyebrows and looked at him._

            "Oh… right. Your detentions," Professor Snape sighed. "Okay, Professor McGonagall and I were talking about doing something a little bit different with you two. For one, we've been running out of ideas. Do you know how hard it is to think of thirty different detentions? You'd think not… but… Anyways, you two are going to be somewhat like test subjects. We're trying something totally different and seeing if we can use it in the future as detention."

            Ginny put her hands in her lap. "What is it Professor?"

            "We're going to send you out into the Muggle world. Just for tonight. A couple of hours…."

            Draco looked at him bewildered. "_What? Me... in the Muggle world. Are you serious?"_

            Professor Snape nodded. "Very. We told the Muggles that ran the pound that it would be sort of like… community service is what they call it. You go there and they… tell you what to do and you help them. Now of course, I told them you're there to work not fool around so they'll be having you…"

            "_Pound?" the word was unfamiliar to him. "What in the world is a "pound"?"_

            "It's sort of like a place were Muggles put all their unwanted pets. And if an animal's been there for too long, or is dangerous, they'll be killed." Ginny gave a small whimper.

            "Oh, _no… how __could they?" Draco waved it aside._

            "That doesn't matter… they do it here, just more brutal. You _do know what the Committee of the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures does right? Anyways, that's not the point, nobody cares about the animals…" Ginny frowned when he said this. "The __main point is… you're __sending me into the Muggle world. You just can't do that… you can't. It's impossible, I can't be around that many Muggles at once. You don't know what'll happen…"_

            "And what exactly _will happen then, Mr. Malfoy?" Snape interjected. Draco sighed._

            "All hell will break lose and the Muggles will be sent running and screaming; terrified of my powerful magical abilities. So basically, I'll snap, end up cursing one of them, and they'll be scared shitless," Draco explained all of this rather melodramatically. Snape raised his eyebrows.

            "And besides," Draco continued. "There's the whole fact that you're leaving me alone with _her… in __the Muggle world," Draco couldn't emphasize "Muggle world" enough for his liking. Snape's eyebrows rose farther._

            "I don't think that you have actually been regretting your time alone with…_Ginny, Mr. Malfoy. If you get my meaning…"_

            Draco found that he didn't have anything witty to say back to Snape. He stared, careful not to look at the girl next to him who seemed to have frozen. "I _don't get your meaning, Professor Snape. And I assure you, I never will." Draco stood up to leave the room. He pushed in his chair and turned around then…_

            "Where are you going? You've been here so long that it's time for you to go to your detention already…" Draco turned around slowly to look back at his Professor. Why couldn't Snape have just let him leave the room? Why did he have to humiliate him like this? 

            "How? How are we supposed to get there then?" Draco asked, throwing up his arms. "I hope that you don't suppose that we get there by Apparating. I haven't gotten my license yet and Gi…Weasley's still too young."

            "Hey… I'm going to be sixteen next wed-"

            "But you aren't _yet…"_

            Wow, she was only fifteen then… was that too young? What was she doing hanging out with him… he was a bad influence on her.

            He turned around to look at Snape accusingly. Snape raised his eyebrows yet again. "I've set up a port key, Malfoy. And I hope that you loose your attitude problem soon or you'll find yourself in more trouble than you are now. Disrespecting a teacher is against the rules, and you know that."

            Draco crossed his arms and sighed; trying to control himself. "Alright…" he said slowly. "Shall we go now?" Snape nodded.

            "If you wish," he reached into his desk and pulled out a small box. Ginny got out of her chair and leaned over his table, trying to get a glimpse of it. Draco glanced over at her before he took a look at the box. From where she was he could smell her body spray. He closed his eyes quickly. It was…     

            _Now, dammit… she smells__ like strawberries too! What is with this woman?_

_            Draco opened his eyes again and looked at Snape who had just taken the lid off the box. Inside was a…_

            "Pen… couldn't be a little more creative now, could we?" Snape ignored him.

            "We'll all touch it. On three. One… two… three," and they all joined their fingers on the base of the pen. 

            The black swirling sensation stopped and Draco felt himself hit solid ground. Unfortunately, he didn't land on his feet.  He was thrown sprawled out on his back on the concrete. Something heavy and soft landed on top of him.

            "What the…?"

            It smelt oddly like…

            "Dammit Virginia, get off of me,"

            The weight was suddenly removed. "Not like I asked to be put here, Tempest."           

            **Hey, that's _my_ name…**

**            "Shut up Weasley, don't call me that. Because I can find worse names for _you_…" he said pointedly.**

            "Oh can you now?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips indignantly. He smirked. "Yes, I can and I will. Now help me up slave girl," he out stretched his hands towards her waiting to be helped. She looked at him.

            "Excuse me?"

            "I was only kidding… please…?" Draco wiggled his hands in front of her. She sighed and grabbed them, yanking him up (with some difficulty…) off the ground. Before she left him go though, Draco pulled her close to him and wrapped her arms around him. He face was inches from hers. 

            "Well, Virginia… I didn't know you cared," he raised his eyebrow tauntingly. "I wouldn't think that you'd be moved by my char…"

            "Get _off of me…" she said, pushing him off fiercely. "Remember what happened last time? Wouldn't want to hurt your precious nose again…"_

            "Oh, shut…"

            Professor Snape's voice rang from in front of them. "Will you two quit it and get over here?"

            Draco glared at Ginny. "…Right," he growled. He nodded and went over to Snape, Ginny followed.

            "What is this place?" Draco asked curiously, squinting in the direction of the tattered looking building in front of them. He raised his hands over his face to get a good look at the sign.

            "This is where you're going to be holding your detention tonight," Snape answered. Draco read the sign again.

            _Central Northtown Animal Pound and Rescue Shelter_

_            "Northtown animal pound… but what are we…?"_

            Snape interrupted him quickly, glancing in the direction for the building. "Come on, follow me. We're already late,"

            "What…? But…" Draco stuttered as Ginny dragged him into the shelter. She looked back at him.

            "That was a real intelligent sentence, it was. What but… good one, Malfoy,"

            "I…" Draco stopped. She had pulled him through the doors of the shelter and he just realized that he was inside. His voice had caught in his throat as he looked around him. It was… strange. Like something he'd never seen before. There were cages lined up along the walls and it might have smelled a bit like urine but still. It was…

            Draco didn't even know what you would call something as fascinating as this place.

            But of course, like you'd ever get him to admit that.

            "This place smells like shit…" he said instead. Ginny glared at him.

            "It does not, that's only because you…"

            Ginny was suddenly cut off by a voice coming from behind one of the cages. Draco turned around to see where it had come from and Snape just stood there quietly.

            "Ah, there you are! I've been waiting…"

            A man in about twenty years old came out to greet them. He had a large smile plastered on his gentle face. He was fairly tall and had dark brown hair and eyes of the same color. Ginny's eyes widened as she saw him and she replied to him with an awkward smile. Draco narrowed his eyes and clenched his teeth. He already didn't like this man.

The man wiped his hands on his apron and extended one to Draco. Draco looked at it and his lip curled. There was no way he was touching that thing. Who knew where it had been.

The man seemed to fall back a bit. "Not the greeting type, are we?" he said. He turned to Ginny and grabbed her hand lightly.

"Hi there… my name's Damien," his brown eyes matched exactly with hers and he smiled. She seemed a little bit embarrassed as he set her hand back down; a pink tinge showed up in her cheeks.

Draco didn't find this amusing. His hands balled up and he scowled.

_Get your hands off of her you filthy rat bastard…_

Damien turned to Snape now. "I'm sorry my father isn't here. He came down with something just now and he couldn't make it. I'm here in his place,"

Damien smiled. Draco _really didn't like this guy._

"Alright, I just hope you know what they're here to do…" Snape said slowly.

Damien grinned yet again. "Yep, cleaning out the cages… that's what my father said,"

"Alright," Snape turned to them. "I'll be back for you two at a quarter to ten," and without another word, Snape turned around and exited the building. The door clicked behind him and Draco watched as he carefully stepped into the shadow.

"Weird man, that guy… is he your teacher?" Damien asked curiously. Draco nodded slightly, not wanting to talk. He looked around again. There was a small front desk a few feet away and over to Draco's left there was a door that seemed to be leading into a lobby. On the desk there was as sign stating: "_We're open 24 hours to give you the best service. Thank you for visiting."_

Damien clapped his hands together. "Ok, so what do you guys _really want to do?" he asked. Ginny's mouth opened in shock._

"But we're here to…" she was interrupted.

"Listen sweetheart, I know you two don't want to clean cages for the next couple of hours. And since my dad's not here, I'll let you off easy."

Ginny had blushed a deep shade of red when he mentioned to her as sweetheart. She looked up at him; her eyes twinkling. Draco's scowl deepened. If he wasn't careful, his face might get stuck that way. 

But still… obviously there was something wrong with this guy. He was too nice. And Ginny was going to get hurt, going about getting all giddy. Draco needed to protect her. Make sure no creepy older guy laid his hands on her. Obviously, since Ginny was the trusting type, all you would have to do was get a good looking guy (who was nice… maybe that's why she didn't like _him yet…) and she'd be all over him._

And of course, Draco was known to get very jealous at times.

So, he devised a plan. You can't go hitting on girls if they've got _boyfriends now could you? Ginny didn't have a boyfriend, but Draco could easily make it look that way._

He moved closer to her and, as casual as anything, slipped his arm around her shoulders. He wrapped his other arm around her too. It was a bit unsettling how she suddenly had grown very frozen when he did so. Didn't she… like it? 

"Yeah… what do you want to do, Gin?" he asked as softly as he could. She tensed up. Draco's stomach dropped as he realized that she really didn't like what he was doing. It almost…

…hurt his feelings.

No… Draco didn't have feelings. He wasn't supposed to, was he?

But, if that was so… then what was this odd thing that had just struck him right in his gut? As if someone had punched him. Really hard, maybe as hard as she had just a month ago. 

He had never felt it before.

And here he was, with this girl he had always hated, always looked down upon. And now he was getting jealous just because some guy smiled at her? Lots of people smile at each other, what was different about this?

Maybe it was her reaction. How she blushed furiously when he grabbed her hand. Ginny had never blushed for him. The only time she turned red was when she was angry. That was different. Why couldn't he make her blush like that guy had just by giving her a warm smile?

Because Draco couldn't give people warm smiles. He wasn't used to it. He may have been acting differently through the past month (with a lot of help from Goody Tempest) but _smiling? _

And here he was… with a Weasley in his arms. What was he feeling right now? If Draco had feelings… what would that be _right now?_

Content?

Was he capable of feeling content?

Was he capable of feeling it for a _Weasley?_

The word rang in his head.

Weasley… Weasley.

Malfoy's hated Weasley's, didn't they?

But…

…he was standing here with Ginny Weasley wrapped in his arms; for the sole reason that he had jumped to conclusions and suddenly felt that he wasn't going to let this guy have her.

Damien probably had no intention of that in the first place. Maybe he was just being nice…

No, Draco didn't want to take that chance. Not now… not ever.

No one would get Ginny. Not before he had his say…

"M-malfoy, what…what are you doing?" she choked out her words and turned around to face him. Their noses were so close that if he moved the slightest inch he could have kissed her.

He was fighting back the urge to do just that.

Yes… he very badly wanted to kiss her right now. He didn't care if he did right in front of this guy. Nothing would get in the way. Not here… not now.

Other than the fact that she still hated him...

Draco gulped.

"Oh hell…"

That's when he finally realized the whole truth…

Goody Tempest had been trying to tell him all along. Heck, even Trelawney was hinting at it…

Now Draco could see it. And it settled on him with the weight of a particularly large elephant… 

No, there had to be a way to prove it. Some sort of test. To make sure that his life wasn't completely over yet.

He frowned and ran a hand through her hair; pulling her closer to him.

If his body gave a reaction, just some sort of _anything… then, well, he wouldn't know what to do. But it would be bad._

But if it didn't, if he could just stand here unaffected by her, then everything would be okay.

Everything would be fine.

Everything would…

"Malfoy… what are you _doing? Get off…"_

His stomach lurched and a knotting sensation pulled at his chest…

Damn.

…here he was, falling for the girl that seemed totally wrong for him… 

**Ok. Yay, I finally got it out. In the next chapter I'm doing something different. A lot of it's going to be from Ron's point of view. Won't that be nice? Well, let's hope. I think that it's coming along nicely. **

**Special thanks to my brand new beta, Angela. Now hopefully, I won't make as many mistakes as I used to. Let's all give her a round of applause. ::claps:: **

**::claps::**

**::claps::**

**::clap…::**

**Ok, my hands are starting to hurt now.**

**Cya in the next chapter!**


	7. Catch Me

**It's done!!!!**

**A/N: The dream he had has something to do with this chapter…**

**There's also not as much as Ron as I had expected. Only two parts with him really…. But for that one reviewer that said she hated Ron then I guess that's ok. ****J**

Chapter Seven: **Catch Me******

Arms crossed over his chest, Draco sat against the wall; looking at the other side of the room and muttering to himself sounding very distressed. He glared.

"Stupid Damien… that insufferable bastard. Who does he think he is?! Going around being such an intolerable git all night, stupid… stupid…" Draco couldn't find anything more creative to say so he settled with: "…bastard."

"Oh, this one is so cute!" he heard Ginny wailed from the other side of the room. She picked the small puppy in her arms and held him (yes, a him, Draco could clearly see it from where he was standing) in front of her face. The puppy licked her nose and she giggled.

Damien pointed to it. "That one's an owner surrender, it is."

"And what does that mean again?" Ginny asked slowly. Damien had been explaining all the different types of animals that were there and what it was called. Draco spoke up from the back of the room.

"That means the people came in and dropped the dog off at the front desk in person and not at the night box," he said. Ginny looked up to Damien to see if it was correct. He looked over at Draco.

"I thought you weren't listening Mr. I'm-in-a-bad-mood," he said, raising his eyebrows. Draco scowled.

"I just happened to overhear that's all, nothing to get all worried about,"

Ginny looked over at Draco. "Do you want to hold him?" she asked in a much better mood then when they had started off their evening. Draco looked at her and then back to Damien. He'd probably be sitting on the ground next to her pretending not to like all the cute animals, but Damien was there. Now he was stuck pretending over by the wall. Well, no. He wasn't going to let this bastard ruin his evening. His last detention.

"Sure," he shrugged and walked over to her; sitting down on the floor beside her and outstretching his arms. She handed it to him with care and the puppy squirmed playfully. He licked Draco's hands rapidly and gave a tiny bark.

Draco looked down at it with restrained interest. As a boy growing up with everything he could want, you'd never expect that Draco Malfoy had never come in contact with a real life puppy before. It was sad in horrible, childish way.

An odd feeling sparked up in him as he watched the small black fur ball sniffing his shirt curiously. There were patches of brown on its paws, muzzle, and chest and it's small nub tail was shaking back and forth furiously. 

"I don't see why they cut the tails off of rottwielers. If you ask me, it's stupid. He can barely wag his tail,"

Draco saw Damien shrug. "I think that's just what they do; people are so used to them not having tails. I think that they originally started cutting off the tails because some of the dogs were used in war a long time ago and the tails would get in the way and the dogs wouldn't be able to work if it got injured. So they cut 'em off. And like I said, people were used to them without tails. However… I'm not sure if that's true, it's what my dad told me, though."

"I didn't ask for you to give me the history of dogs," he said handing it back to Ginny who took the small dog back gratefully.

            Draco looked around the shelter. For the past hour Damien had been showing them around and letting them take out a few of the animals. To Draco's disappointment, but Ginny's delight, they didn't have snakes there. 

"So, what would you like to see now?" Damien asked, taking the dog away from Ginny and setting him back in the cage. She looked around the room they were sitting in. 

"Cats… where are the cats?" she asked.

Damien smiled. "All right… this way."

He led them into a room and Draco was instantly greeted with the meowing of many, many cats. Ginny looked around.

"How cute…" she said. Draco crossed his arms and mimicked her in a high pitched voice.

"How cute…"

She glared at him but didn't reply. Instead she turned to Damien. 

"Can I hold any?" she asked. Damien smiled…_again_.  What was _with_ this guy?

"Sure you can…" he walked over to one of the cages and opened it. Inside was a small black cat. Maybe it was a kitten. He picked it up and handed it to her. Damien looked at it.

"He's getting… put down next week," he said lightly.

Ginny's eyes grew wide. "Why?!"

Damien shrugged. "No one will buy him. No one wants him," he said sadly. Draco looked away from him.

_Oh god…is he trying to get her to like him or something? Wants her to think he's all nice… what a loser.___

**It would do you good to do the same…******

_Shut up___

"I wish I could keep him…" she mumbled quietly, although Draco heard.

He glared at her as she held the kitten close to her chest. "Well, Weasley," he began bitterly, "if you weren't so poor you'd be able to save him…"

Ginny fell silent. Damien looked at Draco and back to her. "That wasn't nice… apologize, to her," he said.

Draco's mouth opened and closed rapidly. "What? Why?"

"I already told you why. Go on," he said, gesturing toward her.

"No. You're not my father…"

"I should be. Doesn't sound like yours taught you properly,"

"You know what? If my father…" Draco stopped. This guy had no business about how his father raised him. Of course his father raised him right, he'd raised him wonderfully. He'd prove this guy wrong. He turned to Ginny.

"I'm sorry Virginia," he took a glance at Damien that wasn't short of disgusted. "If you really want the cat, I'll get you the da…" he paused, perhaps that wasn't the best thing to say right now. "…I'll get you it," he corrected dully.

Ginny stared at him, Damien seemed slightly shocked. Draco only smirked. He was winning. 

"What?" she asked quietly.

"I'll get you it," he said slowly, as if talking to a particularly young child. "You know, I hand him something called "money" and in return, you get the cat,"

Ginny stared and blinked, not knowing what to say. "Really?"

"Really."

She stared again. 

"Listen. Do you want the thing or not because I tend to change my mind quickly," 

She looked down at the cat and then Draco with a slightly confused look on her face.

"Sure…"

Damien who had been watching now turned to Ginny. 

"Well, what are going to name him?"

She looked at the cat and Draco again. His eyebrows rose expectantly.

"Dragon," she finally concluded. Draco gave a shocked looked.

She flashed him a smirk that only a Malfoy could give and turned back to Damien with a smile.  

~~~~~~~~~~

Draco pouted as he walked down the hall, not paying attention to exactly where he was going. His arms, once again, were crossed over his chest and his demeanor was different then usually.

_"Bye Damien! Thank you," Ginny said, smiling and waving like a mad man, the small black kitten tucked under her arm. Damien bowed and pulled her hand to his lips. Laughing he said, "No problem."___

_            She blushed to the roots of her red hair. Draco took a deep breath and tried not to watch them. Behind him, Professor Snape didn't seem too happy either. Ginny turned around, "Draco aren't you going to say good bye?" she whispered. He glared at her, fuming. "No."___

_            Professor Snape gestured them to leave. As they left Damien called out to her. "Perhaps I'll see you around then, Ginny?" he inquired. Draco clenched his teeth and fists as she blushed _again_. ___

_            "S-sure,"___

_            Draco turned around, the only thing on his mind was getting back to school. Well, perhaps not the only thing.   _ __

Must get to the common room. That was the only thing he wanted and the only thing he needed right now. Common room…nice, warm, happy common room…

Wait, what was he thinking? That he had been accidentally transferred into Gryffindor?! Warm and happy indeed. Their common room was about as warm and happy as a snow shoe hare caught in a particularly violent blizzard. 

Dormitories, that was it. Must get to the dormitories. 

_"Draco," Ginny said as they had just arrived in Professor Snape's room from the portkey. "I'm ashamed of you…"_

_"And so you should be, innocent little Gryffindor…" he answered. She seemed to ignore it._

_"You were horrible _all night long_, all he did was act nicely and…"_

_"He acted nice because you were there and frankly I don't give a damn about how he treated me…" Draco tried to exit but found the fuming Gryffindor standing in his way with a cat cradled in her arms. He tried to ignore the fact that he had actually bought her something._

He walked and walked. Why wasn't he at his common room yet? He had went the right way didn't he?

Draco turned around. Perhaps not, because he had no clue as to where he was or in which direction he was heading. He had never been down this corridor before, it was strange how after seven years of attending Hogwarts, every once in a while he managed to get himself lost. 

He frowned and continued onward. It was a perilous journey that everyone must face sometime in their life, getting lost in Hogwarts. But getting lost in _Hogwarts_ was about the worst thing you could do when you really wanted to lie down by the fire and have a good sulk because most likely, you'd never get to.

Draco continued with his walking; it seemed to be the best thing to do at the moment. He couldn't just stand here in this corridor that was unknown to him and try and wait for someone to find him. That would be idiotic.

Suddenly, Draco wished that he hadn't been so stubborn and stayed with Ginny. At least then he would have been lost with someone. But did he want to get lost in the middle of a giant castle with _Ginny_?   

Perhaps, but Draco didn't wish to dwell on that right now. He had other matters to take care of…

_"What do you mean he was only nice because I was there?" she asked as she – much to Draco's slight dismay but enjoyment – followed him down the hall. He sighed, figuring that the way to get rid of her and think on his own was to answer. There was the slight part of him that didn't want her to leave but since he was angry (for _some_ reason that he couldn't put a finger on…) it seemed best for her to leave._

_"You know what I mean. He was all over you the whole time…" Draco said, not looking over at her. Ginny's eyes widened at this and she stopped._

_"He was not! He was a perfect gentleman unlike _some _of us!" she said, her eyes flashing with anger. Draco merely rolled his._

_"Of course he was, he only wanted to get into your pants…" the second the sentence was out Draco regretted it. Ginny's mouth dropped and her eyes held an emotion he'd never seen before. Simply put, that was probably the most insulting thing anyone, including him, had said to her in a very long time. She was shaking with slight fury._

_"You're _horrible_! How…" suddenly, she looked appalled._

_"You're just jealous… you're _jealous_ aren't you?"_

_Draco was thrown off by her forwardness and that it was now apparent she could read minds…_

__

…Like finding out where he was at. There were no longer any doors lining the walls and the torches were just a foot above his head. Their flickering light cast upon the stones on the floor as he walked. He preferred to stay to the patches of light; you didn't know what could be in the shadows. Especially in a castle right next to a forest with weird and terrifying animals…

He still regretted that horrible Forbidden Forest escapade back in first year. It had been _horrible…_

Especially counting the fact that he used to scream like a girl then. Just the time to get scared in front of Potter, lucky him. He didn't scream like a girl any _more that is, especially since his voice had cracked about four years ago. He remembered, back in the end of third year, grinning at the fact that Harry's hadn't… stupid childish bastard. And his voice __still had an odd squeak to it every once in a while. Besides, Ginny needed a real man to take care of her. She should forget about all the Harry Potter wonder boy nonsense and see what was really good for her._

Draco had almost stopped walking right then. Did he just think that? Oh… he was in trouble now. Thinking stupid things like that… it was something that everyone _but Draco would think about. This was bad._

He shrugged. Not like anyone cared. Not like any one would find out….

And if they did he'd kill them before they could say Quidditch. This was a touchy subject, it was, and no body needed to know. 

_Draco stared at her, feeling rather stupid that he couldn't come up with a witty retort. Finally he settled with, "Of course I'm not jealous Weasley. What the hell would I be jealous _for_?" he asked bitterly. _

_She stared at him, shaking her head angrily. Draco suddenly realized that during the fight, they had unknowingly moved closer to each other. Draco was looking down his arrogant nose at her when he noticed how close they were. He could actually feel her chest rising and falling against his own as she breathed heavy with anger. Just the smell of her made him want to lean down and kiss her and he wasn't sure that he'd be able to control himself for much longer. The feeling was coursing through him and was begging to be let out; to be planted right on those strawberry coated lips of hers… _

_"I don't have one damn reason to be jealous," he repeated firmly, perhaps a little more firmly than he had planned. His nose was almost touching hers. Suddenly, she put her hands on his chest. With a surge in his stomach he wondered what she was doing. It only came to him once he was several feet away from her, that she'd pushed him. _

_"Then either you're stupid, or your blind. I'd wager you're both…"_

_He glared darkly at her. He hadn't understood what she had meant and he sure as hell wasn't going to spend the time to comprehend it._

_Not just yet anyhow._

Again, Draco began to wonder where he was at. Shouldn't he have found somewhere he recognized _yet? There were a couple of doors now, scattered along the hall. Sometimes it would be several paces before he came upon another. They were ordinary doors, the only thing odd about them was their layout. _

No, they weren't all ordinary doors. As Draco walked he came closer and closer to a dead end in the corridor and at the very finish was a strange looking one; set apart from the rest. He approached it and stopped. It stood out from all the rest… it was different. Of course, it looked like the rest; plain brown with a small silver handle, but something about it was just different. He couldn't figure out what it was. He cocked his head and raised an eyebrow as if it would help him understand better. It looked as though it had never been touched by the grubby hands of students. Was that possibly what was different? No… no it wasn't. There was something else… something that wasn't visible… almost like the door had been placed for him to find.

Draco turned around and looked back down the corridor then to the door again. It wasn't as if he wasn't lost enough, it couldn't possibly get any worse. It wouldn't hurt if he went _inside would it? He could always walk back out._

He stepped up and put his hand on the handle, turning it and pushing it away from him. The door swung back on its hinges easily, it seemed to be beckoning him in further. He stepped inside. The room didn't have an extraordinary feeling about it. It appeared to be just like the other class rooms. However, there were no desk, chairs, or boards; anything that would suggest teaching. It was completely empty except…

Draco looked over in the corner. About ten feet away from the wall facing him was a large golden frame. The only thing he could see of its contents was the brown wooden back. It could either be a picture or a particularly large mirror. His brow furrowed and he peered at it with interested. Couldn't hurt to go see what it was, could it? Carefully and as quietly as he could, for a reason unknown to him, he walked toward it and around to the front. He didn't take the time to glance at the reflection, he had seen his fair share of mirrors in his lifetime, and instead he looked at the frame. There were small jewels encrusted in the gold leaf-like pattern; it was extremely exquisite.

He looked at the top of it. Small, calligraphic words were carved there.

_Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_

His eyebrows quirked. He had seen a mirror like this… there were only about 10 in existence and one happened to rest soundly in Draco's bedroom back at the manor. It was the mirror of Erised. Of course, there was a large sheet covering over it at the manor so that he didn't look in it often. He stared, not remembering what it did.  He smoothed his hand over the soft frame. It was odd and he still hadn't looked at his reflection. Not that it mattered, he had just realized that it was much too dark to see a whole lot in it. He was lucky that he could read the inscription because it had been as if the mirror was giving off a strange omniscient light that didn't reach out to the darkness of the room. As if it wanted him to read it. But again, he couldn't understand it. The only language he could speak was English. Though, he did know a bit of Latin and French along with that. But, the mirror contained none of those. Instead it was…

Well, what was it exactly?

Maybe, if he studied it, he might be able to find some clue as to what it was. 

Because he certainly couldn't remember. Again Draco cocked his head to his head ever so slightly and a memory rushed towards him instantly.

_It was his fifth birthday. _

_There weren't presents, or running children, or balloons. Nor was there a cake, candles, confetti… nothing of the sort. Not much of a celebration what-so-ever. He was given 'gifts' of course. But they were never wrapped and they didn't ever hold the charm as most presents would for a small child on his birthday. _

_            Little Draco was sitting on the floor of his room, idling playing with a spider he'd found crawling across the wood. He poked at it with his fingers, hoping with all his tiny little body that it would do something more remotely interesting than scuttle around dully. It never did. So, he began to practice his writing in the dust. He had just recently learned how to spell his name._

Draco Tempest Augustus Malfoy

            _ It was very hard and he had been so proud of himself that he hadn't listened while being taught numbers, and ran to his father. He quickly showed the man and his eyes welled with tears when he had said it was nothing extraordinary. _

_            The fact the Draco didn't know his numbers properly yet, showed in the next line of dusty letters._

10 year old.

            _"There," he said grinning happily. "Draco Tempest Augustus Malfoy, 5 years old," instantly he swelled with pride but didn't dare stand up to show his father. "I'm so smart… when I go to Durmstrang, I'll be the smartest one there…"_

_            He was glowering with content just as his father came in._

_            "What are you so happy about?" he asked. _

_            Draco's mood changed in an instant._

_            "Hello father," he said meekly. _

_            "I've brought you a gift Draco," he said, not returning the hallow greeting. "Maybe you won't screw it up this time…"_

_            "Yes father…"_

_            Their butler suddenly wheeled in a large object. Draco stared at it, his wide blue eyes taking it in with slight curiosity. _

_            As Draco grew older, his eyes had lost that innocent blue luster and had become cold and grey as they remained to this day…_

_            "What is it father?" Draco asked, not trying to hide his excitement. _

_            Lucius Malfoy waved his hand lazily. "Take off the covering, Jeeves, and let him see it,"_

_            Jeeves did so and Draco found himself looking into an extremely large and beautiful mirror with writing on it. He stared in awe. _

_            "What is it father?" he whispered, unaware that he had asked the question earlier and hadn't been answered. _

_            "This is a mirror of Erised. It shows you your deepest, heart's desire. _But_, it can be dangerous… so I'd advise you to watch out and keep it covered when not in use…"_

_            His father left then and Jeeves gave a small bow at Draco and left too. Draco sat there staring at the mirror feeling slightly empty. He had gotten a mirror for his fifth birthday. A mirror. He had hundreds of those around the manor. Was his father hinting at something? Was Draco not cleansing enough? Brushing his hair and teeth properly? It sounded like something his father would do._

_            Draco looked in the mirror and realized that the reflection wasn't of him in this dusty old room but he was outside. And he was playing. Draco was hardly ever allowed to play. But there he was in the reflection, riding around the grass on a toy broomstick. To the far right of the yard stood Draco's father. His arms were crossed over his chest and he was just staring at Draco happily with a small grin on his face. It was a genuinely pleased grin that people used when they were enjoying something._

_            It was a smile that 5-year-old Draco had never seen on his father and never would again._

 Ah, so that's what it did then. It showed your heart's desire. Suddenly, he felt slightly anxious to see what his was. He hadn't glance in his for a while now and surely it had changed. 

He glanced in it and simply stared at what he saw as his heart pounded painfully in his chest. 

There were… well, there was a number of things in there. Draco saw himself of course… that was a given. There was a girl standing beside him. He had known automatically that it was Ginny. His reflection had his arm around her casually and seemed to be acting as though everything was right in the world. However, that was not the only thing in the mirror that Draco was surprised at. On the large stone wall behind him and Ginny, were many paintings. A large number of them were of couples. Some where kissing, some hugging, others were just there. The floor and drapings on the wall were deep red. Not blood red or anything gory like that, but simply a pleasant deep red that one would see during Valentine's Day or something. He noticed something else too. In the corner of the reflection was a large roaring fire and in front of it sat a woman and a small child. They were sitting cuddled on the floor and she was reading to him out of a large book. Draco's heart heaved for some unknown reason and he ached to touch them to see if they were real because the warmth and love coming out of the reflection certainly seemed so. He had rarely had this feeling in his life. The only times – he decided – were when he was around Ginny. That was a positively frightening thought and he turned his attention to why all that was in his reflection. His heart's desire really had changed but to what exactly, he wasn't sure. He wished to sit in front of the mirror for the rest of the night and simply bask in the warmth of it all the while particularly enjoying the site of himself and Ginny. But he thought better of that idea. His father had said it had been dangerous and he knew why. When he was five he had sat in front of the mirror every day for nearly a year in hopes that it would open and would be some portal so that he could go play too, because he had desperately wanted to. But that had taken all the energy out of poor Draco and had actually gotten him sick. No matter how much he liked this image he – very regretfully – turned from it and slowly, very slowly, walked towards the door to leave; wondering what the hell it all meant.

He slept very badly for that night and a few of the one's to come.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

**One Month Later…******

The common room seemed more packed than it usually did. Gryffindors were scattered about everywhere; reading, chatting, playing games, or finishing homework. Some people were trying to juggle all of them at the same time. Not Ginny though. She seemed to be solely set on finishing whatever paper she was working on. It looked like it was Muggle Studies. Ron frowned. He didn't know until a couple days ago that she took Muggle Studies. Obviously, he wasn't paying close enough attention to that. However, he was good at paying attention to other things. Like people. Ron, surprisingly found himself intrigued with peoples emotions and their actions. He often reflected on how they were feeling and was able to talk easily to most people using this skill. 

            It had actually really started back in fifth year when he realized that he had started liking certain girls. Like a girl that was sitting across from him right now; nose buried in a text book. He sighed. Unfortunately, she was taken. Did they think he didn't know? Could they really be that dense? Not only could he tell by the way that they acted but his sister had tipped him off to pay more attention. Obviously, she knew somehow. Why wouldn't they just tell everybody? What were they afraid of? Him? Yes, Ron could be jealous at times but when it came to his friends, he really wanted the best for them. No matter how much that it actually hurt him…   

            But that didn't matter. Not when he had stuff going on in his own family that he needed to pay attention to. Ron looked over at Ginny again. The last few days had been… odd, if anything. Ron had begun to notice things. Things he didn't want to notice; things that made him… confused. Ron was very observant. You might not think so, but he was. It had been a month since his little sister had been freed of her detentions. Ron shuddered, at first he had felt sorry for her… a months worth of detentions with Malfoy? _No one_ wanted to go through that. But now… he didn't know what he felt for her but it was confusing. He had been watching her over the past few days, her behavior had somehow changed. She seemed unusually happy to the untrained eye. To most people, she seemed back to normal. For that month that she had the detentions she had been easily irritated; always snapping at people and never in a good mood. Ron had thought at first that it had been because of Malfoy. And now she should be happy… ecstatic that she didn't have to see him any longer. And to most people, it seemed as though they had their old Ginny back. But she wasn't. When it seemed that people weren't looking Ginny looked awfully… _lonely_. Like something was missing. Something she didn't want to admit was missing. It was like when he had had Scabbers. Ron was constantly complaining about him but when he was actually gone that had been another story completely. 

Ron didn't know what was wrong with her but he knew that it had something to do with Malfoy.

            Malfoy. He had been acting different too. Unfortunately, Ron had noticed this also; he hadn't wanted to of course. During the detentions Malfoy had seemed a little higher up on the 'nice scale'. Of course, he was still only a 2 but his usual attitude earned him a negative 100. So, he had actually improved quite a bit. Which was odd… and scary. What was different from that month than any other in their school career? 

            Of course, the answer was that Malfoy had been with Ginny for at least an hour every night. But how should that change anything? It shouldn't. Not unless something was going on. And Ron was almost positive that there was. 

            It had started out with little things. The fact that Malfoy wouldn't try to kill Ron if he had called him 'ferret' or 'daddy's boy', usually at times Ron would receive a "…if my father…" or "… listen _Weasel_." Now all he would get was a "Shove off," or "Not now, Weasley."

            It wasn't exactly that Ron was complaining but still.      

            Then Ron started to notice that Malfoy didn't eat as much as usual (which was quite a lot, actually). However, the blond antagonist seemed to devour strawberries in a heart beat. 

He slouched to his classes and didn't seem to have the same arrogant air about him as he did normally. 

            And then there were the looks. Whenever Ginny passed the Slytherin in the hallways to or from class, Malfoy would just barely glance at her quickly and move his eyes defiantly to the floor. Not in an embarrassed sort of way but more angrily. As if he had lost something or that it hadn't been given to him in the first place. And everyone knew that Draco Malfoy _hated_ not getting his way. He'd clench his teeth and continue to class, only to glance behind his shoulder again to watch the redhead descend down some flight of stairs. But this time, he wouldn't look angry. Almost… hurt. If Malfoy could ever show "hurt". Which, Ron didn't think exactly could be possible for someone that cold and stiff. Malfoy was an enigma all right.

            Ron would often catch Malfoy glaring over at Ginny during dinner too, as if something was her fault. Of course, Malfoy always wanted to have someone to blame things on. Ron would look up and their eyes would meet. Then, Malfoy would become cold again and be almost back to normal by narrowing his eyes and mouthing "Screw you," to Ron. And Ron would almost smile, that is until a burning furry would build up in him and he'd suddenly, desperately want to protect Ginny from whatever plan Malfoy seemed to be scheming. 

            But Malfoy, too, had that look as though something was missing.

            ~~~~~~~~~~~

As Ron grew closer to her, Ginny looked more and more lonesome. But why? Of course, the reason he was going over there was to find out. Would she tell him though? Did he even really _want to know what was going on? Perhaps he did, perhaps he didn't. Well, he knew that at least _something_ was going on because Ginny wasn't sitting by herself any longer._

            Dean had just come and sat by Ginny as Ron was walking toward her. Her face seemed to light up a bit, but not much. And it made him wonder. Exactly what was she thinking? Shouldn't she be happy to see him? They had, much to Ron's distress, been going out for the couple (though for a while she had been going on and on about some guy named Damien…).

            Ron had noticed that Malfoy hadn't seemed too eager about that either.

            Quite the opposite actually.

            For example, Dean and Malfoy had gotten into a fight during potions just the other day.

            Dean had come back to the common room that night with a black eye and cut upper lip. He had obviously come off worse in the brawl.

            It had all started because Malfoy thought Dean had looked at him wrong.

_"What are you looking at Thomas?" he had spat venomously over the top of his cauldron.___

_            "Er… nothing?" he said, cocking his head.___

_            Malfoy's eyebrows rose. "What was that?"___

_            "I said nothing Malfoy…" Dean said, sounding slightly confused.___

_            "Didn't sound like it…" he hissed. ___

_            "Well, that's what I said,"___

_            Malfoy became indignant. "Do you feel like messing with me today, Thomas? Because if you do, you're setting yourself up for a major ass kicking…"___

_            Unfortunately, Dean rose to the bait. "Oh really?"___

Poor Dean. He should have just quit while he was ahead. Ron sighed as he sat down in a chair across from them. Dean gave him an apprehensive glare.

            "Hey guys,"

            "Hiya…" Dean answered. Ron looked at him. He, on the other hand, looked completely giddy compared to Ginny. Possibly because he was just accepted to go into the ministry after school ended.

            "Um… Gin, I was hoping I could talk to you alone…" he said, more to Dean than to her. Dean seemed to have got his meaning. 

            "Alright," he stood up and placed a hand on Ginny's shoulder. "I'll see you later?" She looked up at him slowly.

            "Oh… sure," Ginny replied quietly as Dean walked off. Ron got up to sit on the couch beside her.

            "So… how's it going?" he asked, looking down at her. "You don't look to well…"

            Ginny shot a poisonous glare at him. "I'm doing homework, Ron. Do you think I'm going to look happy about it?"

            "That's not what I meant, Ginny. And you know it…"

            "I don't know what you're talking about, Ron," she said shortly. He shook his head. Of course he wasn't going to get a straight answer out of her. He should have known. Alright, so he was going to have to fight it out of her. So be it.

            Besides, Ron held the remarkable skill of getting Ginny to tell him things.

            "Ginny, what happened?" he asked slowly. Because something _had happened and Ron was determined to find out what._

            "Nothing," she said quickly, returning back to her work desperately as if it were an escape. His voice held a warning tone when he next spoke.

            "Ginny…"

            "Alright," she put in miserably as if she had lost some kind of game. Which it was. This was a game. "He… kissed me. But that's all…" her face flushed. Obviously, she _had known what he was talking about._

            Ron was aghast. "What?"

            "Don't make me say it again…" she said, embarrassed.

            "_Is that all?" Ron inquired. They had… _kissed_? Dear Lord… this was worse than he thought._

            "Well there were… no… nothing," she had stopped herself from revealing anything important. He didn't talk for a while and just sat there staring at her oddly. _His_ little sister… kissed_ Draco Malfoy_? He finally spoke up and was restraining himself to keep a calm voice instead of yelling: "What the hell were you thinking, dammit?"

            "Ginny… and I'm not asking you this as my normal stubborn self," he laughed dryly before he continued. "I'm asking you seriously. Do you have any feelings for Malfoy?"

            She glanced up at him quickly and looked down again. "Ron, don't be stupid…"

            "Answer me Ginny… do you have any feelings for him?" he shuddered at the sheer thought of it.

            "No!" she said indignantly.

            "Ginny, are you sure?" he asked, his voice dropping to a gentle whisper, one he didn't think he could have.

            She stuttered. "Of course… Ron, I… you see… Dean…"

            "Don't bring Dean into this," he said, shaking his head. "If you really cared about your relationship with Dean, you'd put more heart into it…"

            "But my heart is in it!" she defended.

            "It is not… and pretending it is, isn't only hurting you but it's hurting him as well…"

            Ginny didn't answer. They sat in silence for a bit and Ginny seemed to be thinking about what he said and rolling it over in her head. Her face gave away the fact that there was a battle of thoughts playing in her head. Finally, Ron broke the quiet…

            "When?"

            She turned to him, startled. "What?"

            "When did he kiss you?" he asked with a little more force than he meant.

            "It… it was a while ago. During detention…" she said weakly. Ron became slightly outraged at the thought.

            "…!..."

_            I knew they weren't supervising them enough!_

            Ginny seemed to have read his mind perfectly. "They were supervising us plenty…"          

            Silence again. Then…

            "Was it only that once?"

            She didn't answer him at first. She sat and stared at her Muggle Studies text book.   

            "Yeah… well, no – not really,"

            "There were _more_?" he asked loudly. Harry, who was over sitting with Hermione, turned his head to look at them quickly. Ginny glanced at him and then back to her brother.

            "Ron, I don't want to talk about this right now…" she said quietly.

            Ron sat there and struggled with what he was hearing. It wouldn't help to get angry with her. Of course… this wasn't her fault. It's not like she had kissed _him_. Malfoy probably made the first move. But why…?

            That stupid bastard was so hard to understand…

            Ron tried to control his voice and decided to go with the friendly approach that might get her out in the open.

            "You know… it's okay Gin. You can tell me. Everyone goes through these phases where the fall for bastard people like Malfoy. And if there was someone more wrong in the world than Malfoy then God help me…" he trailed off and looked back at her.

            Some kind of emotion flickered on Ginny's face momentarily. "He can be nice sometimes…" she said firmly.

            "Yeah, I know…" suddenly, he realized what she had actually said. It wasn't what he thought it had been which went along the lines of: "I know… Malfoy's a total bastard…" He stared at her… "What did you say?"

            "That wasn't fair what you said… he can be nice on very rare occasions…"

            His eyebrows rose. "Give me an example…"

            "Well… I don't know… he – ate Neville's toad to prove that he was sorry to me once," she said slowly. Ron looked at her. He hadn't known that Malfoy had eaten Trevor. Heck, he had forgotten that Trevor was actually gone.

            Ginny rather struggled to continue, as though she was realizing all this stuff for the first time too. "And once, he stopped a skrewt from biting my hand off by jumping on it and he ended up getting his face burnt _again…" she laughed slightly at the image of Malfoy getting burnt for a second time. _

            "And then he sent those Dungbombs off because someone was about to attack the school and he wanted everyone out of the great hall because they'd all get…er… attacked,"

            Ron hadn't been paying attention to the last one, the word "Dungbomb" had been enough for him.

            "I don't call all that very nice. I call that stupid," he said quickly. Ginny looked up at him a-matter-of-factly. 

            "Listen, he can be nice… and funny and I know deep down that he actually cares about stuff. Now, it may not be the kind of things normal people care about but it's still something and that's important to him…" her chest was rising and falling a little faster than usual as she looked at him.   

            Ron stood up and looked down at her. He could leave now… he knew what was going on. And it _shocked_ him. He had to go somewhere to think about it. He looked down at her quietly. "If you don't have _any_ feelings for Malfoy… then why are you protecting him?"

            Ginny looked up at him and seemed to be imitating a rather large fish. Ron just winked at her and turned around to go to the boy's dorms. As casual as anything he finished with:

            "Later…"

             ~~~~~~~~~~

Draco sighed and flopped his arm lazily across his face.

            Home…

            He would love to be at home right now. Away from all this nonsense.

            Away from all this… _love_ crap that Goody Tempest had been taking about a few minutes ago. They'd had an argument. Goody seemed to think that he had deep feelings for Virginia, Draco on the other hand didn't…

            Quite the opposite.

            And what was Goody Tempest's defense and proof that he was true?

            **_You're completely miserable without her…_******

Draco was particularly pissed off about that. So now they weren't talking to each other anymore. Simple and easy. Draco just wouldn't think.

            Which actually was going to be quite hard…

            Especially since he was doing a lot of thinking right now. _Was he miserable without her? Did he actually have feelings for her? Well, after his long time of thinking Draco had come to one conclusion…_

            Yes.

            Plain and simple… Yes.

            Draco must be the plague of all in the Malfoy family. Feelings? Malfoy's didn't have feelings. Except for him… this wasn't fair.

            What were those feelings, exactly? Only time could tell. But there was a more important question nagging at the back of Draco's mind… not the fact that he had feelings for her but more…

            Did she have any for him?

            And, after a bit more thinking, Draco came to yet another conclusion…

            No.

            No… it rang like a bell in Draco's ears. No… no…

            Soon, it sounded as though someone was actually saying it…

            **Nope, nada, no, none, zip, zilch, just forget about it loser…******

Oh, so maybe someone _was saying it…_

            _I thought we weren't talking any more?_

            He didn't get a reply.

_            Good.___

Draco looked at the night stand. A small package was sitting next to his lamp.

            **You were supposed to give that to her a month ago.**__****

_            We aren't talking. Get out of my head.___

**I can't, where the hell am I supposed to go? For the first time he had sounded slightly angry.**

****Draco crossed his arms indignantly. _I'm not talking to you any more. _Draco was relieved to find that he didn't get an answer. He looked out the window enjoying his moment of peace. Stuff was just so complicated now. Really it was. How was he ever going to keep up his reputation of being the bad boy when his personality gets totally thrown off balance whenever Ginny was near? It was like he wasn't even the same person anymore. Every time that he saw her he somehow transformed into this guy that she could possibly come to like after time. It wasn't supposed to work this way; nobody else had been able to get him to act like this. 

            At least it couldn't get worse, could it? At least he wasn't tramping around getting all romantic and crap over someone like Granger. No, this was nothing compared to that; there was no possibility that he'd _ever_ fall for Granger. Not now, not ever. 

            Actually, there was a time when he thought falling for Ginny wasn't possible.

            It actually showed that people should pay more attention to what they said. Perhaps someone was punishing him for always treating her badly. Damn them…

            Or maybe…

            Draco frowned. Didn't a months worth of detention seem _awfully harsh for just getting into a fight? And they weren't really fighting either, she had just punched him. They should have only gotten __one detention and a couple of points taken away from the houses…_

            A months worth though? It was as though McGonagall and Snape had _purposefully given them that amount of time together. What exactly was she playing at? _

            This question raced through his head and he'd probably never know the answer…

            ~~~~~~~~~~~

**_Two months ago…_****__**

_"Severus this is all getting very ridiculous!" Professor McGonagall said as she walked past a group of Slytherin's bullying a small Gryffindor first year. "All the years that I've worked here it hasn't changed one bit… not one bit!"___

_            Snape looked over at her, annoyed. "Minerva, please stop your complaining. I'm not in the mood. Slytherin and Gryffindor have always been rivals. It's been like that since the founders were here, there's nothing we can do to change it and you know that," he said evenly. McGonagall let out a puff of air. ___

_            "There are ways we could change it. There has to be. What if we forced the students to spend more time together? Both would realize that the other house wasn't that bad. I'm not saying they have to get along and be friendly but the fighting and competing that takes place is absolutely horrid. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff get along perfectly well, why can't it be the same with these two,"___

_            He glanced at her as they continued down the hall, having just come from dinner where this argument had first started. "The rivalry that goes on between the houses is what keeps this school alive. It keeps them competing against each other like you said, it makes them strive to be better. If everyone liked each other you wouldn't have half as interesting Quidditch matches, the house cup wouldn't be _nearly_ as fun for the students, and Hogwarts would turn out to be as dull and dreary as Beauxbatons,"___

_            She seemed to refuse to take his point, though he had made several good ones. "But it's unhealthy for the well being of the students,"___

_            "It is not," he disagreed firmly.___

_            They continued walking and McGonagall couldn't think of much to say at the moment. Suddenly, Professor Snape seemed as though he was about to talk when a Hufflepuff third year came running down the corridor; not paying attention to where he was going. He ran straight into Snape. The Hufflepuff was knocked to the ground while Snape was barely disheveled. The boy stood up and with round frightened eyes stared up at his potions Professor.  ___

_            "P-professor Snape! I… didn't see you," he said frantically.___

_            "That much was evident," Snape said darkly. "Ten points from Hufflepuff. Now get out of my site before I make it twenty,"___

_            The boy nodded. "Yes sir," he said taking off in the other direction. Snape narrowed his eyes after him.___

_            "Severus that was uncalled for," she said as they resumed walking.___

_            "He should have been watching where he was going instead of being so reckless. I swear, the next student I see put a single toe out of line is getting a detention. Better yet… make it a months worth,"___

_            "Let's not get impractical, we don't _give_ out months worth detentions," she said.___

_            "We should, it would teach the students a lesson or two about behaving. Honestly, half of the detentions I give…"___

_            He stopped as they rounded a corner. In front of them, however still quite far away, were two examples of their earlier discussion.___

_            Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy.___

_            Seeing them alone together was very uncommon for Professor McGonagall. It had happened only once before and they had been fighting…___

_            Which seemed to be what they were doing now. Before McGonagall could say anything she saw Ginny's arm pull back and…___

_            Collide square in the middle of Draco's face. McGonagall's eyes widened, where had that girl learned to punch like that? Draco got up and said something to her; covering his now bloody nose. Ginny seemed about to leave.___

_            "Stop right there!" Professor McGonagall called out, briskly walking forward. Professor Snape followed her. As she neared Draco she realized it was worse than she had thought; his nose was obviously broken.___

            I can't believe this,_ she though to herself. _This is exactly what I was talking about. _Suddenly, she remembered what Professor Snape had said earlier. Quickly, she decided that she should make up a punishment before he had a chance to but it was too late, the words were already spilling from his mouth.___

_            "Miss Weasley! Fighting in the hall?" he seemed to pause momentarily, trying to come up with the right punishment for punching someone who resided in his house. "That'll be a hundred points from Gryffindor and a…" he paused yet again and McGonagall hoped that he would say it. "A months worth of detentions!"___

_            She saw Ginny Weasley's eyes grow extremely wide. "But Professor he…"___

_            Snape cut her off quickly. "No buts," he said firmly. Professor McGonagall was about to intervene to change it when something occurred to her. Hadn't she been just saying that perhaps there might be a way for the houses to spend some more time together? Wouldn't the students take it as an example if they saw one of the most popular boys in Slytherin with Gryffindor Ronald Weasley's little sister? It would probably shock them into liking each other. Perhaps they could _both_ have the detention. A whole months worth. Imagine, Draco being forced to spend time with a Gryffindor sixth year for more than an hour every night for thirty days. This was truly one of her more brilliant ideas.___

_            "Severus, I think the boy should get punishment to," she said slyly. "Obviously he taunted her…"___

_            Both Snape and Draco's eyes widened. "Minerva, she could have permanently damaged him," the older of the two said. McGonagall didn't pay attention to Ginny who had the look as though she had just been hit in the stomach with a troll's club.___

_            "Oh his pretty little face will be fine," she said glancing at Draco's nose. "After he goes up to the hospital wing they can both have detentions together. It's only fair," she said resolutely.___

_            "But Minerva…" Snape started. McGonagall threw him a look that said "I'll explain later" and was relieved when Draco spoke up.___

_            "Professor, _please_ can I go to the hospital wing?" he said, his nose still dripping with blood.___

_            Professor McGonagall smiled. This might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship between the two houses…___

_            But it could also lead to certain disaster.___

_            ~~~~~~~~~_

**_Er… later._****__**

_"So Minerva, what is it exactly that you want me to do?" Dumbledore asked, his hands folded on his oak desk. He looked at Professor McGonagall who was sitting in a chair directly in front of him.___

_            "Sir, I set up that they serve the detentions together. I think that something good might come out of it," she said, rather apprehensively. He raised an eyebrow.___

_            "How so?"___

_            "Well, you see, Severus and I were discussing the rivalry that goes on between Gryffindor and Slytherin. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to show the students that it doesn't always have to be that way." ___

_"Minerva, do you know what happens when a boy and a girl end up spending that much time alone together? No matter how much they happen to dislike each other…?" his soft blue eyes twinkled.___

_            "Well, yes Headmaster but _honestly _do you think there is even the slightest _possibility_ that can happen to this particular pair? Draco Malfoy and Virginia Weasley?"___

_            "It can happen to everyone. I'm sure you remember Arthur and Molly, am I correct?"___

_            "But that was different," she said, giving dry laugh.___

_            "How so?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.___

_            "They didn't hate each other…"___

_            He gave her a short look.___

_            "As much…" she added quickly. Dumbledore sighed and shifted some papers on his desk.___

_            "Just be careful, meddling in the lives of students can be very dangerous; especially if it has to do with their emotions…"___

_            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

Getting Malfoy to talk was going to be much harder than it was to get Ginny to, Ron decided. Malfoy never talked to Ron voluntarily unless it was a rude, off hand comment. And he especially didn't go about boasting feelings for Ron's little sister. So this was going to be… _tough. And interesting. Especially since Harry seemed to be sticking closer to Ron than he usually did. But maybe it only seemed like that today because Ron actually _didn't_ want him there._

As the minutes until they went to potions ticked by Ron actually was a bit… nervous. He had to know what was going on between Malfoy and his sister. Because most people couldn't see it… but it was there. As clear as water. And to Ron, it stuck out like Harry would at a rock concert…. You could see it from a mile away. 

But he didn't _want to see it. Why'd it have to be him to notice it and not some else? Someone who wasn't about to _puke_ and the pure horrendous thought of Malfoy actually liking his sister._

Someone who hadn't just seen Malfoy walk by and suddenly have the urge to strangle him. But instead, what he said in cheerful tones was…

"Hi Malfoy,"

Ok, so maybe _that was going to make him puke. Had he really just said "Hi" to Malfoy? Of all horrible outrageous things to do in the world!_

Ron watched apprehensively as Malfoy turned around slowly on his heal to glare at him. He had a bemused expression on his face as he looked at Ron.

Oh great. Ron should have known. Be nice to Malfoy… and he kills you. Slowly and painfully just with his eyes which, at the moment, seemed to be drilling into Ron for an explanation.

"What?" Malfoy asked.

Of course, if he wanted Malfoy to talk then being nice to him might just be the way to startle the words out. Malfoy wasn't used to people always being nice to him.

"I said hi, Malfoy," Ron said smiling brightly. "It's a beautiful day isn't it?"

Harry was looking over at Ron as though an alien from some other planet had taken over his body.

Perhaps one had.

But none the less… this plan seemed to be working, no matter how little its effects were. Malfoy looked nonplussed. 

"Er… hi…?" Malfoy replied, his eyebrows still meeting his hair line. Ron was startled that it had sounded… nice, to some degree. Especially coming from Malfoy. He had expected a "What do you want, Weasley?"

But, maybe that's because something was wrong with Malfoy. Something that started with a "G" and ended with an "inny Weasley".

Ron fell into step with Malfoy as the Gryffindor and Slytherin seventh years made their way to potions. The Slytherins were giving Ron murderous glares while Harry still looked utterly confused but followed Ron none the less.

Malfoy sent him a glare that could have burnt through a fire proof wall. Ron remained calm. Harry remained… still totally bewildered.

"Ron…?" he whispered urgently. Ron silenced him.

"Wait, I'll tell you in a bit…"

"So Malfoy, like any girls lately?" Ron made a cough that sounded oddly like "My sister." Malfoy stopped dead.

"So that's what this is about…"

"Pretty much. What's going on?"

"What do you know? What do you _want to know?"_

"Do you have a thing for her?"

"Weasley, what the hell is wrong with you? Of course I don't… I'm too busy with all my other woman…"

Ron looked at the group which only consisted with one girl at the moment: Pansy. He smirked at her.

"What women?"

Malfoy scowled.

"Shut up Weasley… Come on guys,"

            Ron looked at Malfoy's back, defeated. Then, he thought of something. Something that would get Malfoy's, and all the other Slytherin's, attention in a heart beat.

            "Why is it that you kissed her then…?" he asked loudly. Malfoy froze and so did all the other seventh year Slytherins. He turned to stare at Ron. His face was betraying him with a shocked look. Instead of denying it or just ignoring the comment what Malfoy said, in a small questioning voice that seemed foreign to him, was: 

            "How do you know?"

            There was a shocked gasp from the Slytherin crowd. Pansy pushed her way toward him and grabbed his arm.

            "Draco… you _didn't_!"

            He flung a hand up to stop them all; they fell instantly silent.  Even Blaise didn't seem to have anything further to say.

            "Go. Go now… all of you," Draco ordered. They didn't budge.

            "Did you hear me? You'll be late for potions if you don't hurry…" he said again. Reluctantly they started to continue down to the dungeon until only Harry, Ron and Malfoy remained. Malfoy looked questioning.

            "How do you know?" he repeated. Ron glared down at him….

            Yes down… he was still quite a bit taller than Malfoy.

            "She told me..."

            Malfoy looked shocked. "She told you? So… does that mean she told you about the pound thing… or the port key thing… or when we were in Snape's office…?"

            "_What?!"_

            "I was only kidding you prat…" he said, smirking evilly. He stared at Ron quickly and then continued. Ron was still trying to recover from what Malfoy had said.

            "Well, that never happened…" Malfoy finished quickly. 

            "What didn't?"

            "I didn't kiss her," he said firmly. A little too firmly. 

            Ron highly doubted that Malfoy was telling the truth. "But you just practically _admitted it…"_

            "Well, let's pretend I didn't…" he said, walking back toward potions. Ron called out to him. 

            "Malfoy get back here!"

            He didn't, and he gave them a last glance as he shut the dungeon door behind him.

            Well, there was still Care of Magical Creatures.

            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ron's chance to figure out what _really was going on came later that day. Not much later actually. The Gryffindors where on their way to Divination, the Slytherins to Transfiguration. Some how they ended up going down the same hall at one time, unfortunately for some people, but to Ron's delight.  Malfoy was just a few steps in front of him. Time for action again._

But, Ron didn't get his chance just yet. Who hadn't been paying attention to where he was going from some reason, bumped into someone (this person happened to be Ginny but Malfoy didn't know it yet) and his book bag dropped to the floor. Several of his things fell out, including a small package.

"Oh, I'm sorry…" she said.

 He bent down to pick them up; so did Ginny. Ron watched them curiously, they hadn't known they bumped into each other. As Ginny was trying to help him their hands touched and he pulled it back instantly, almost as if he already knew it were her just by the contact. His eyes went up slowly.

"Weasley…" his voice cracked. She gulped.

"Malfoy…" the package was in her hand and Malfoy quickly looked down at it before returning his eyes back to hers. 

"Um…"

She cut in. "Uh, here," she shoved it toward him. He took it and stared down, he gulped and ran his hand through his hair.

"Actually, it was for… you," he said, carefully not looking at her, the tips of his ears turning slightly pink. He pushed it into her hands and she stared at it. 

"Really?" she asked. "Uh, thank you but… why?" she was blushing now. Ron noted, with slight irritation, that their faces were _very _close. Malfoy stood up.

"It doesn't matter," he said, walking off, holding his bag with more care than he had been before. She stood up to and was staring down at it with interest. Ron went up to her. 

            "Ginny, what was that that he gave you?" he asked slowly. She looked up at him quickly. 

            "Obviously I don't know, I haven't opened it. Go away Ron,"

            Then she walked off too. What was up with people lately. Ok… Ginny wasn't going to talk to him. Now it was Malfoy's turn. He quickly followed him, gesturing Harry to come to. He came somewhat reluctantly. The reach Malfoy just as he was about to go up a flight of stairs. The hall was clearing now and most people were already at their classes.

            They stopped him.

            "What did you just give her?" Ron asked quickly. Malfoy glared at them and his lips curled.

"Nothing, shove off,"

Ron stopped him from walking off again. Yes… he was being the cliché over protective brother at the moment. So what? Something might be going on and he wasn't going to let Malfoy hurt his sister. "Tell me…"

"No, I don't have to. It doesn't matter,"

"Listen Malfoy, and your therapist might say otherwise, but I think that you might have… have fe-"

Malfoy's next words were rushed and he didn't seem to know exactly what he was saying. Perhaps if he had, he may have been a little bit more careful to what his words were.

            "Listen Weasley, it doesn't _matter_ that I have feelings for her! Go away…why don't you just leave me alo…" Malfoy had clamped his hand firmly over his mouth to stop him from embarrassing himself further. He desperately looked from Ron to Harry.

            Harry seemed to be suppressing laughter and Ron? Ron was absolutely, positively mute with horror. Of course, he had known that _something_ was up but _this_? He hadn't expected this. He shadowed Malfoy by throwing his hands over his mouth also.

            At Ron's side, Harry was still rolling in silent laughter. Ron watched as Malfoy dove at Harry, knocking him into the wall and holding him up by the hem of his robes. Malfoy's nose was inches from Harry and his eyes were threatening.

            "Don't you _dare tell her, Potter," he hissed in Harry's hear. "If you do, I swear… you'll wish you've never been born. Do you hear me? You won't breath a word of it…" despite his threats, Malfoy seemed frantic. _

            _How stupid can you get? Ron thought. __The prick practically just told us that what he said was true. Couldn't he have denied that he had said it?___

            Harry winced. "Ok, OK… I wasn't going to tell her anyway… get your bloody hands off of me…"

            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ginny flung her dorm door open and hurried inside, shutting the door swiftly behind her. Hopefully, no one would come in. She looked over to her bed where Dragon was lying fast asleep on one of her pillows. She sat down next to him.

            "Hey you. Are you hungry?" she asked him. His deep gray eyes looked up at her and he meowed. 

            "Alright I'll go get you something right after…" she faltered and looked down at the pockets of her robes which were protruding slightly. She reached her hand in and grabbed the small package. She cocked her head and frowned. 

            "I wonder what it is," she asked herself, her heart pounding slightly. She turned it over in her hands; it didn't say anything. She slowly pulled the wrapping back and a small paper fell out and fluttered to the ground. She bent down to pick it up.

_Here. Happy birthday. Sorry it's late.___

_-DTM___

_P.S. Maybe you won't hate me now.___

Her eyebrows met in the middle of her forehead as she moved to what was in the package. "How did he know it was my birthday?"

            It was a bracelet. A small silver and green bracelet. It didn't look too expensive but it still the fact that he had got her a present… jewelry at that. 

            Didn't guys get jewelry for people they…

            Ginny shook her head. Of course not… it wouldn't even do to _hope that that was true. No way, no how. She slipped it over her hand and looked at it. The colors were so very… Slytherin of Draco to get her._

            "The worst thing is…" she said to herself quietly, stroking Dragon. "I don't hate him." 

            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    __

**_Not that much later…_****__**

Not much had happened after that. Draco avoided Ron, Harry, and even Ginny most of the time now. It was too risky to do otherwise. And now… something the whole school had been waiting for all year was just about to start.

            Quidditch. Gryffindor vs. Slytherin.

            The game was more anticipated this year mainly because the last time Slytherin had, amazing, won. 180 points to 90. It hadn't been a close game… that is, until Draco caught the Snitch. Anything could happen with the Snitch, it could turn the game around at last minute. 

            Well, Harry _had_ been sick last year. But Draco liked to pretend otherwise.

            The two captains glared at each other.

"Potter, Malfoy, shake hands," Madame Hooch said, rather fearing for each of the boy's safety. Both of them scowled and grasped hands, each one trying to break the bones of the other.

"Alright, that's enough," she said. "Mount your brooms…" Draco swung his leg over his broom, glaring at Harry. "On my whistle… three – two – one…" Draco kicked off the ground just before she blew her whistle. Harry followed. It used to be that his Firebolt could out beat Draco's in an instant but not anymore. Harry's broom was nothing compared to the Tazer.

After about ten minutes in the air, Draco became bored. The Snitch was no where to be seen. Harry was only a little bit away and seemed nervous for some reason. 

"Easy there, Potter! We wouldn't want our _youngest seeker in a century_ getting hurt like last year!" Draco called out to him

"You might want to be careful, Malfoy. Your girlfriend might hear you," Harry yelled back icily. Draco scowled.

"Pansy isn't my girlfriend anymore…" he said bitterly.

Harry smirked. "That wasn't who I was talking about…" he jerked his head at something behind Draco. He turned around, looking at the players confused. That's when he spotted her. 

"What the hell is she doing here?" he turned to Harry.

"She's a reserve…"

He tried to reclaim himself. "I'd think that you Gryffindors would realize that the Weasley's weren't actually helping your team… You just keep on letting them in for some reason. Must be pity. Slytherin would _never_ let them keep getting on the team, well… they'd never get into Slytherin in the first-"

Draco stopped suddenly. He had been looking over at Harry but now…

He had spotted the Snitch, flitting just above one of the goal post on the Gryffindor side. Harry turned around to see what Draco was looking at and at the same time they dove. However, Draco was still on his Tazer, the best _broom_ in a century. He lunged forward suddenly. He and Harry were side to side, racing to get there first; their knees bumping into the other's. Draco elbowed him in the side fiercely. He smirked as Harry gagged and fell back.

"…and Malfoy and Harry Potter, who we might add has never lost to Slytherin aside from last year, are racing for the Snitch. Although Harry's the better Seeker he might lose again to Malfoy's broom. The Tazar, which is the newest, fastest broom on the market, can reach speeds up to 180 miles per hour and has excellent…"

"Finnigan…" McGonagall warned.

"Sorry Professor…" 

Draco tried not to pay attention of the commentary. He was growing on the Snitch with quickening speed. Any moment now…

There was a yell for somewhere above him. He stopped in mid air and turned around. Harry, who was still after the Snitch, barreled into him and froze too.

"Dodge this Weasley!"

With sickening realization he noted the yell to have come from Pansy and she hadn't been talking to Ron.

What she had done, was sent two angry bludgers straight at…

Ginny, who was unaware of all of it. Because of the excitement of the game, Pansy's remark was unheard by her. And currently, Ginny was facing the opposite direction, anxiously awaiting a pass from her brother who had just received the ball from Thomas. She couldn't see the bludger either. 

"… and the Quaffle is passed to… Well look at that, the Seekers stopped before they reached the Snitch…"

Harry was glaring at Draco angrily. "What do you think you're doing? The Snitch is gone now…!"

Draco wasn't listening to him.

"Weasley, behind you!" he yelled. Both Ginny and Ron turned to look. Ginny's eyes grew wide as she saw the bludgers heading right at her but she didn't move, possibly frozen with fear.

"Why aren't you moving?" he muttered to himself. "Come on, move Weas-"

CRACK!

Ginny let out a cry as the first bludger hit her square in the chest. 

"They don't seem to really be paying attention to where it is, for some…" Seamus' voice changed suddenly. "Bloody _hell_! Ginny Weasley, Gryffindor reserve, has just been brutally ambushed by the Slytherin Beaters…that's a foul, damn it! Somebody better catch her before she falls off her broom!"

Harry gasped and at the same exact time as Draco said, "Ginny!"

He looked over at Draco startled but his eyes didn't remain there for long. Ginny was clutching her broom with one hand and her chest with the other. The ball, which hit her extremely hard, was probably enough to break her rib cage. 

And, still both at the same time, Harry and Draco raced toward her as she painfully slipped off the edge of her broom.

It was as if they were in a race for the Snitch, but more seemed to be at stake here.

Well, it sure seemed like that to Draco at least. He had no clue what Harry was thinking. 

Well, actually he did. Harry had turned to him while they were still trying to reach her…

"What are you doing, Malfoy?!" he yelled over the rushing of wind as they gained speed. Draco yelled back to him not regarding his words, which didn't seem to really matter right now.

"What does it look like I'm doing, Potter? I'm trying to save my 'girlfriend'," and with a spurt of speed he broke ahead of Harry.

He was under her now. Any minute… come on…

His broom dropped a foot as he caught her in his outstretched arms.

As she opened her eyes to looked at him Draco's stomach did a familiar flop. She seemed awfully hurt and was surprised to see it was him.

"Draco?" 

"Thank Merlin she was caught but… is that _Malfoy_? It is. Draco Malfoy, Slytherin Captain and Seeker has just caught her. Well I'll be…"

Draco opened his mouth to speak. He should say something. Something nice or something to show his concern or something _comforting_…

The problem was; Draco didn't know how to comfort people. He spoke. Almost regretting the words that hadn't even come out of his lips yet.

"I _told Potter you Weasley's were useless when it came to Quidditch."_

"…and Malfoy's just sitting there like an idiot! Bring back down to ground already!"

She looked at him confused. There was some bloody trickling from somewhere on her head. She must've clipped it on her broom as she was falling.

There it was again… that feeling of complete defenselessness. That feeling that if he didn't kiss her at that moment – that very moment – that he would absolutely die from lack of her lips on his. That would be a funny way to die, it would. And embarrassing in a way. He closed his eyes, trying to calm his breathing and subdue his pounding heart because in her position he was sure she'd be able to feel it. Draco didn't want her near him any longer because it made him feel that the only logical action would be to kiss her, that the only logical thought would have to be _of her. It was a horrible feeling and yet thrilling at the same time. Draco felt the slight urge to drop her and try to calculate if the feeling would leave or just increase immensely with her absence._

Suddenly, Draco remembered something…

There was still another bludger coming. Bloody hell.

The crowd had all gasped when Draco had caught her and now they turned their heads and winced as now Draco was pelted with the bludger. His broom dropped another foot. 

Draco bit his lip as white hot pain coursed through his arm. How was he supposed to play the rest of the game with a broken bone?

"Ooh, and Malfoy is hit by his own Beater! The plot thickens!"

He decided the best thing to do was get Ginny back on the ground. He lowered his broom and the teachers and students came out to meet them instantly.

"That was spectacular Mr. Malfoy…" Professor McGonagall didn't even seem to care that he was on the Slytherin team. Madame Pomfrey was furious. 

"I don't see the point of this ruddy game!" she said, grabbing Ginny. Pomfrey then looked at Draco.

"And you're hurt too!" she exclaimed. McGonagall glanced at him.

"Yes, it would be best if you got to the hospital wing…" she said. Draco made an indignant noise. 

"I'm not that hurt. I'll keep playing…" he said, holding his arm.

"You can't!" Ginny's voice piped up. Some people turned to her, shocked.

"I will if I choose to," Draco said, throwing his leg over his Tazer and wincing. 

"But…"

He didn't hear her for he had already taken off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"They're getting Ginny ready to be carried over to the Hospital Wing but it looks as if Malfoy wants to continue playing. But after a hit like that it looks as if the Gryffindor Seeker will have the advantage…"

 The first thing Draco did, however, was go up to Pansy. She seemed particularly happy about something.

"What did you do?" he yelled at her. She seemed confused as he glared at her.

"I hit her," she said, as if stating the obvious.

"Why?"

"This is _Quidditch Draco. People are going to get hit; people are going to fall off their brooms. For Merlin's sake she's a __Gryffindor!" she said._

"But you aren't supposed to hit her purposefully! How can you be so reckless, you could have killed her!"

Draco didn't know that Ginny could hear him yelling at her.

"_And? She deserved it. Draco, what's gotten into you? It shouldn't matter!"_

"It _does matter. You prat!" he said squeezing the end of his broomstick with fury._

Pansy looked utterly shocked. "Draco! What has _gotten _into you?" she repeated.

"Nothing," he said, through gritted teeth and turned to continue looking for the Snitch.

"And the game continues. The Quaffle is passed to Pitchard, the newest Slytherin Chaser. Then to Baddock and Morag. Oh, it's intercepted but Weasley, who passes it off to Thomas and… oh no, stolen back by Pitchard again, this kid must be good. Somebody better get him before he…" Seamus swore and got a cross look from McGonagall. "Right, right…" he carried on dreadfully. "Point to Slytherin. The score's now 90 to 70. Gryffindor's down by 2."

Minutes went past and still nothing. Much to Draco's distress, Harry had been on his tail since Ginny had been taken out of the game. He kept annoying him with snide comments and Draco was about to explode.

"Why don't you give up, Malfoy? Ginny doesn't care for you tagging around her trying to win her heart, it'll never happen," he said.

A spark of anger flared up deep in Draco.

"Potter, if you say _one more thing about it, I'll slap you so hard it'll look like you've been beaten with an ugly stick," Suddenly he smirked, switching his tone altogether. "Oh wait, it looks like somebody already did it for me…"_

"You're not so pretty yourself,"

"I _hope I'm not pretty. I'm satisfied with unbearably handsome, unlike _some_ people who can't seem to get anybody better than a Mudblood,"_

Harry fumed, he was shaking now. You _never_ insulted Hermione in front of him. It was probably the stupidest thing someone in Hogwarts could do.

"I can't see what you think Ginny will _ever_ see in you," he hissed.

"And I can't see what _Granger sees in __you, scar face,"_

Ah… again, the Snitch comes in a lovely spot during a conversation, only this time, Harry spotted first. It had been right under them and in order to get it both had to do a ninety degree dive. Not good. Draco felt as though he was going to fall off of his broomstick. Harry was still a couple of feet in front of him.

"Ah, everyone can turn their attentions back to the Seekers who are again after the Snitch. Harry's ahead of… no, no now they're even. Someone needs to get him a slower broom… they're knee to knee,"

It was close now. They were side by side… almost to the ground. The Snitch hadn't moved yet, hopefully it wouldn't.

This was going to be the dive of the century.

Draco gripped onto his broom, he was going to collide with the ground. His hand was stretched out and he could see Harry out of the corner of his eye, desperately trying to reach the Snitch before he did.

Come on. Any second now and he would be there. He was going to hit, he was.

With a final burst of speed he reached out and felt something hit his hand. The Snitch? No… it was wet and felt like grass

Draco smashed into the ground with a sickening thump. He saw Harry slowing down, obviously not wanting to do the same. Draco rolled off his broomstick and onto the ground. He moaned in pain before…

"Aha! The Slytherin Seeker crashed! That arm must've effected him but…_no bloody way_! "

With a large triumphant grin his hand reached up and grasped onto something that was fluttering in the air about a foot above him…

Take that Snitch!  

Its tiny white wings beat against his hand furiously. 

He stared at it; his heart pounding in his chest. "I beat Potter…" he said faintly. He smiled broadly and stood up, although it was clear that his arm was broken.

Draco could hear over half of the school booing and hissing at him. But that didn't matter. The Slytherin stands were making up for it with a blanket of noise that could have beaten the other houses any day.

Tazer racing broom: 310 galleons. Special summer Quidditch camp: 75 galleons. The look on Harry's face: Priceless…

Draco pointed his finger at him victoriously. "Take that lightning head!" he yelled. "That's the second year in a row that I've beaten you!"

Harry looked as though he had just been dumped by Cho Chang…

Oh wait, that already happened.

Off in the distance Draco could hear Ron yelling a string of swear words.

That Weasley sure had a mouth…

"Slytherin wins the match with 240 points to 70," came Seamus' voice with much disappointment.

The Slytherin team was racing down to him. As they touched the ground Draco heard a particularly familiar squeak.

"You beat him, Draco!"

A pair of arms was thrown around his neck as Pansy hopped off her broom. 

"Cease from groping me woman!" he yelled at her. Apparently, she had already forgiven him for his little talk with her… the girl was such a flake.

Someone pushed through the crowd of Slytherins.

"Mr. Malfoy, let me check that arm! I can see a broken bone from a mile away!"  
            Madame Pomfrey pushed her way through the crowd to him. She looked up at his face and gave an annoyed look. 

"And you've still got damage from that bludger! Come… I'll get you fixed up," she started for the direction of the castle. "Hurry up now, you're bones aren't going to mend just standing there!" 

             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Draco hobbled into the hospital wing slowly; cradling his arm. Madame Pomfrey wasn't too far behind him. She bristled past him.

            "Come on, I should have known that someone else would get hurt too…" she said quickly. "Mrs. Weasley's already here. She got the wind knocked out of her she did…"

            Madame Pomfrey took a quick glance to the corner of the room. Draco looked too. Ginny sat in one of the beds looking rather put out. The bed next to her was empty. Madame Pomfrey gestured towards it.

            "You can take that one, sweet."

            "But-"

            "No buts," she said. Draco sat down on the bed. He continued. 

            "Why do I need a bed? I've only got a broken arm…" he said, cradling the afore mentioned body part. He saw Ginny take a glance at him before returning her gaze to the window.

            "Because you're not well. Now lay down,"

            "But I'm perfectly well! I'm fine, if you would just fix…"

            She stuffed chocolate in his mouth. He was taken particularly by surprise because of this and choked it out onto his hand. The wet brown lump sat in his palm.

            "What's the chocolate for? I'm not sick or anything,"

            "Put it back in your mouth and eat. I'll be back with the potion to fix your arm…"

            Quickly, she left the room.

            Draco leaned over the side of the bed and stuffed the mushy candy under it. He sat back up and rested his chin on his hand.

            "She gave me chocolate, too," said a voice from the bed next to him. He turned. She didn't look too well and there seemed to be something large stuffed under the front of her robes. Probably some kind of cloth or compressor easing the pain. But why not magic?

            Draco didn't answer her. None of them talked for a while. Draco was just too tired to talk, that was it.

            Ginny broke the silence. "Why did you do that, Draco?"

            He raised his eyebrow. "Because that chocolate was nasty and it wasn't necessary that I eat it."

            She sighed. "That wasn't what I meant. You know what I meant. Why did you do it?"

            Draco's reply was fairly short. Perhaps he should have thought up an answer.

            "Oh," was all he said. "_Oh_"? That wasn't even an answer. Was it even officially a word. He had never seen it in the dictionary before…

            He was suddenly interrupted.

            "And why did Pansy hit me in the first place?" she paused. "Why did you break up with her anyway? Right after she had her outburst in the Great Hall a really long time ago… she walked passed me and said 'You'll pay Weasley, when you least expect it'…. Or something like that. Does any of this have to do with me?" she asked quietly. Though most people wouldn't have a clue as to what she was talking about, Draco knew exactly what she meant. He didn't answer her. What was he supposed to say to her? 'Yes, I think I'm bloody falling in love with you and she hates it.' Was that what she wanted? Probably not…

            He continued to look at the sheets.

            "Draco, does it?"

            His teeth clenched to keep him from saying anything he didn't want to. "No," he said flatly. 

            "But…"

            "_No, it doesn't. What else do you want me to say?" he asked firmly. Ginny quieted. _

            "Nothing… I'm sorry," she said.

            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~__

Ginny wouldn't leave him alone. She seemed determined to find out about Draco, Pansy, their break up, and if it had anything to do with her. Especially the part where she got him. Ginny sat at the Gryffindor table the weekend after the game. She glanced over at Draco. He was quieter than usual. This could either be good or bad. 

Samantha had been overjoyed that Draco caught her and was constantly teasing Ginny about it. Just like she was now.

"You should have seen the look on his face when you were hit. He looked so sad or… maybe worried. It was sweet whatever it was. You're so lucky, Gin…"

Ginny glared at her. "I'm not lucky… there isn't anything going on."

Samantha raised her eyebrows. 

"Well… not that I know of, then," Ginny continued. Samantha smirked.

"That's what I thought… ooh!" She pointed somewhere. "Look, look, he's getting up!"

Draco had just stood and was heading out of the hall. Samantha gave her a push.

"Go get him!" she urged. Ginny looked confused.

"Go get him?"

"Yes… just go… talk to him or something. I'm sure he'll realize how much he likes you," she said excitedly. Ginny wasn't moved.

"What am I supposed to talk to him about?" she asked. Sam shrugged.

"I dunno… ask him,"

Ginny's shoulders drooped. "I already have and he never answers me," she said.

"Well… maybe he will this time. Come on… go. I know you want to,"

Ginny sighed. "All right…" she got up and headed over to the door reaching it before Draco did. He stopped when he realized that she was blocking him. He looked irritated.

"Hi," Ginny said smiling, her knees getting slightly weak as she looked at him. He glared at her.

"Hullo," he said bitterly. "Have you come to pester me about whether or not it has anything to do with you?" he asked. Ginny sighed.

"Yes," she said shortly.

"Well, it's really none of you're business… now leave me alone," he said, turning to go the other way. She grabbed his arm, her stomach gave a jolt at the contact. 

"Please?"

He looked down at her hand and his lip curled. "Why do you want to know so badly?" he asked. Ginny looked up at him. Should she tell him why she _really_ wanted to know? Was it the actual reason or was her brain just playing a trick on her…? Was her _heart_ playing tricks on her? No of course not. "Listen to your heart," was what people said. How was she supposed to listen when it was saying something _this ridiculous? When it was trying to tell her that…_

            No. That was absurd. Positively, one hundred percent absurd. But yet why did it feel so right? Millions of questions raced through Ginny's mind suddenly and she only just realized that Draco had been staring at her, confused, still waiting for an answer. An answer that she _should _have been able to give him without hesitation. The answer _should have been, "I just wanted to know you prat. It's none of your business,"_

            But instead…

            "I wanted to know because I…I," she could seem to find the words. All the wrong ones seemed to be wanted to push up through her throat and spill out of her mouth. But she couldn't let that happen. It would reveal everything that she had kept secret. It hadn't been for very long but for some reason it seemed forever that she hadn't told anybody that she actually really liked Draco Malfoy.

            Oh, her brother was going to kill her when he found out. 

            _If he found out._

            Draco had raised his eyebrows expectantly.

            "Because why? I couldn't quite pick up your answer… you know, you're supposed to _finish your sentence,"_

            Ginny didn't have the heart to get mad at him right now. She looked up at him. If he continued this she was bound to tell him. If he stood there just _looking at her, Ginny would feel compelled to admit everything to him. She'd have to. Her eyes pleaded him not to make her say it._

            He didn't seem to get her meaning. "Well?"

            She wrapped her hands around each other. She muttered very quietly, "Because I think I've fallen…"

            She paused painfully and almost sighed with relief as Draco cut in. "You've fallen as in how?" his voice sounded tight and restrained. 

            She looked up at him and let out a soft inaudible sigh. She cast her eyes quickly to the ground so they wouldn't betray her.

            "I think that I might've fallen in l- "

            Something muffled her words and she stopped, bewildered. She looked back up again. Draco had clamped his cold hand over her mouth almost frantically and leaned in close to her so only she could hear him.

            "What?!" he hissed. She stared up at him, her eyes growing round. He stared at her for a moment and than took his hand away very slowly; looking slightly confused.

            He leaned back slightly as if wounded. "_What_?" he asked sincerely.

            Ginny swallowed the lump in her throat. This was it… she was going to tell him. Of course she was. Why else had she been put in Gryffindor? She was brave and honest and if that meant standing up and telling Draco Malfoy that you had fallen for him then so be it. She didn't care what his reaction was.

            Come to think of it, she did. That's the whole reason she got herself into this mess. Because she _cared_ about how he felt.

            It was actually very shocking. 

            "I kissed you Draco."

            Ok. So maybe that hadn't been what she was going to say but it was a good start.

            He looked slightly confused.  "_So?"_

            "It wasn't when we were in the hall during detention," she explained. "It was when you were sleeping," he still looked confused. Ginny began to feel as though she was rambling. "Sam and I were… visiting you and she told me that you had broken up with Pansy and then she… dared me to kiss you. And…well, it was for 50 galleons so I said yes. And I thought that I wasn't going to like it and I thought that it was going to be horrible just like the first time we kissed…."

            "Oh thanks…." He mumbled, taking a look at the ground. She sighed, he wasn't making this any easier on her. 

            "No, listen Draco. I _thought_ I wasn't going to like it; I _thought_ it was going to be horrible. But it _wasn't_. I… liked it."

            Draco stared and it seemed as though he didn't know what to say. She continued. "I mean, maybe it was because you were sleeping. Or maybe it was because I wasn't feeling well. But that doesn't matter because what I felt when I kissed you won't go away…. Believe me, I've tried to make it," she said.

            "You probably think that this has nothing to do with what you asked me… but it does. Ever since then I've seen you differently and I've felt for you differently. And… and I've noticed things. The answer is that I was hoping it _did have something to do with me and that the reason was because you…"_

            She faltered. She couldn't say it. Being a brave Gryffindor had gotten her so far. Perhaps she didn't need to continue. It sure would save her a lot of embarrassment.

            "Are you trying to say that you think I've…"

            She interrupted him. "Not necessarily thinking you did but… but _hoping so."_

            An odd expression sped through his face but it was gone so quickly that Ginny wasn't sure it had been there, suddenly he changed and his character was bitter. 

            "And what _leads you to these conclusions, Weasley?"_

            As her surname spilled out of his mouth Ginny's heart dropped. He couldn't call her Ginny. He had before. Even Virginia would do. She actually _liked when he called her Virginia in a way. It was different; nobody else called her that. She liked how it sounded when he said it. Why couldn't he call her Virginia now when she wanted him too?_

            She couldn't seem to find an answer for him. He didn't seem up to waiting.

            "Are you saying that you hope that I might _like_ you; might have _feelings_ for you?" he asked this as though it were something so absurd that it shouldn't even be thought of. Ginny looked up at him; her eyes like saucers. Oh why did it have to be him? Why couldn't it have been Dean? Or even Harry? But… Draco? The pointy-faced (though remarkably handsome) snotty, rich, Slytherin prat that was everything _but_ what a normal Gryffindor could possibly want?

Ginny's heart plummeted and she looked away, biting her lip; hoping for the tears not to fall from her eyes.

            Horrified, she felt one drop onto her cheek. Oh why must she get upset now? He had been mean plenty of times to her. Why did it suddenly have to matter so much?

            She saw the boy in front of her go ridged as he watched at her. Had he seen it? Furiously, she wiped away the tear and stood tall with her chin slightly in the air.

            "That's not what I said," she replied firmly, wishing this conversation had never been started but still trying to show him that he wasn't going to affect her. Draco looked at her with that same expression that he had had earlier. The one she thought hadn't really been there. But perhaps it had.

            "But it's what you implied," he said. Ginny was about to answer when she noticed that Draco had taken a step closer to her. 

One thing that Ginny had learned about Draco was that he never stayed in the same mood for very long. He might be happy then suddenly upset. In this case he went from bitter to… well, whatever he was. It was much gentler than usual. Draco Malfoy was a very odd young man.

Suddenly, she realized that he had started talking. "But in this case," he said frowning slightly. "Your implications would be right," he looked into Ginny's eyes causing an odd mixture of feelings to stir up in the pit of her stomach.

Ginny looked up at him. Had he just said what she thought he did? He couldn't have…

Did he realize they were still in the Great Hall? In front of the entire school? Did he realize that people had started to stare at them with confused and bewildered looks? Ginny could vaguely hear voices talking amongst the crowd.

"Is that Draco? What is he doing with that Gryffindor girl?"

"…………………."

She stared into Draco's eyes apprehensively. He wasn't acting like himself. This was out of character for him.

What startled her was that she knew _what_ was in character for him.

"Look what he's doing…" a small voice hissed from somewhere behind her.

The voice broke Ginny out of her trance and she suddenly noticed that Draco's hands were holding her lower arms and he had taken yet another step towards her. He…

Ginny's heart pounded against her chest fiercely; threatening to break her rib cage. She wasn't sure what was going on. This is something that only used to happen when she was around Harry but now, as Draco stood so very close to her, she felt as though she was going weak in the knees, as though her stomach was twisting itself into knots. She looked into his eyes, deep pools of grey that seemed to be sucking her in; that seemed to hypnotize her so that she didn't seem capable of controlling her body any longer. 

All of this for the boy she used to hate?

"Dra…"

But again, Ginny's words were cut short only this time; it hadn't been because of Draco's hand… 

**I felt so bad for Draco when I wrote the bit about when he was five. I re-read the last sentence a couple of times and it made me just want to hug him… even though I had made it up. Yes, weird… oh well… that's me for you.**

**            I honestly don't know when the next chapter will be up and I don't want to lie and say soon like I have before. Well, those weren't lies but I had been very wrong with my assumption. School is busy and so is my life therefore I don't not get to write as often as I do on vacations. Hopefully when Spring Break comes around, which is two weeks long for me… I'll be able to crank out more than one chapter (probably meaning two) in that time. I think I should be up to chapter nine or ten around that time. It just depends….**


	8. Bound

**Ciao! Ok. Here you go. There is an explanation of why it's so late at the bottom.  Sorry to keep you waiting.**

Chapter Eight:** Bound**   
  


The blackened woods seemed to make the site much worse than it was; if that was possible. Thunder boomed in the distance and large black clouds rolled across the threatening sky. There were a number of people everywhere, most of which were wearing long pitch-black cloaks with masks. 

_Death Eaters._

But there were others, as well. In long flowing robes of different colors. They were running, screaming, even calling for help.

This was a massacre, or a killing. Hundreds lay dead on the ground while people who had managed to stay alive passed them; occasionally tripping on an outstretched cold limb. 

Among them, stood a tall blond watching the scene with neither amusement nor distaste. Just merely watching, as if he wasn't sure what was going on. As he continued, red streaked his vision.

A blur it had been, but he was still able to make it out. It was a woman, _Ginny_. She had run past him with two small children at her side. 

More movement met Draco's eyes as he saw several fellow Death Eaters pursuing her. But Draco did not move. He stood there, ice cold eyes locked on the scene of chaos before him and only when the screaming stopped did he began to stir. He slowly made his way toward where Ginny had gone off to. Why hadn't he before? What had made him stay?

He was running as if he suddenly realized what had happened to her, running as fast as his legs could carry him. 

And suddenly, without knowing it, he came upon a clearing with Ginny alone, the two children gone.

And she was lying in a pool of blood and suddenly he knew.

This wasn't a dream. No matter hard he wished, this was real.

And he began to cry, very softly as he made his way carefully towards her. She looked weak, injured and bruised to the point of dying. 

Her chest wasn't moving.

He picked her up as tears streamed down his cheeks. And when he looked closely he could see her chest moving slowly, but she was so weak. Her eyes opened a small amount and she looked at him. 

"Don't bother with me…. leave…"

But he knew he couldn't. He was bound to her. He couldn't leave because of the connection they had. He had to find a way to save her.

"No… you need to hold on, I can find a way to help," he said desperately.

"Draco," she had said as if she hadn't heard him, taking a deep shaky breath. "I have to tell you something…"

"What? What is it?"

She took another breathe; it seemed to be killing her to get the words out. Or maybe it was because she was really dying. 

"I…" her body heaved from the shaking. "I…"

_And then she died._

With a large gasp of air Draco woke up quickly. The movement was so fast and uncoordinated that he toppled off the bed with a large thud, tangled in his sheets. His heart pounded as he rubbed the spot of his head that had hit the floor. His eyes had more water in them than usual. 

The past several days – every night – had been like this. The nightmares, he shuddered. He hadn't known why and it was beginning to get in the way of his school work. But strangely enough every one was the same.

And in every one Ginny would die at the end; every single time. 

And even in the dreams that he got to her in time, she'd still die, numerous ways, of course. With spells, swords, falling off of cliffs (that had happened more times than not) and others. The whole thing was leaving Draco feeling rather depressed, to tell the truth. 

And, to top that off, every time he had one of these dreams, he'd wake up to the point of tears. 

Malfoys didn't cry.

Well, if he wasn't a Malfoy, what was he? 

Ginny was sitting quietly at the edge of her bed, watching the night's sky out of the open window. She had woken up just minutes before for no reason in particular. She had just felt as if something wasn't right. 

But now she couldn't get back to sleep so she sat there, with her eyes droopy and her nightgown pulled tight around her to keep out the cold. 

It had been five days since "The Great Hall Incident" as she and Hermione liked to call it and Ginny couldn't have felt worse in her life. She had only once, since then, talked to Draco and it hadn't come out how she would have wanted it. 

Of course, she had her reason for liking him_,_ but… she had her reasons for avoiding him as well. He, however, seemed to think that he was doing something wrong… or that she didn't care for him at all.

But that wasn't the truth. It was because she liked him _so_ much that she was in this particular predicament. There were just so many things wrong with this whole situation that she couldn't possibly make it work out. Therefore, she had to stay away from him. She had already made up her mind that it was the right thing to do. The right thing for her, for him… for everyone. 

And she didn't care how much it hurt her in the process. 

Draco remembered running back to the dormitories that night. But the events were somewhat of a blur. He could remember throwing himself on his bed, his chest rising and falling faster than usual, thinking that what had just happened had been one of the most amazing things to have ever happened to him. Absolutely amazing but so _utterly_ embarrassing. His cheeks had tinged pink, which was rare as he realized the whole school had seen him kissing Ginny Weasley. 

How _embarrassing._ She had seemed to like it of course, although that didn't seem to matter now. _S_he hadn't followed him and when he had seen her on the Quidditch pitch the night after it had happened, she seemed to be unmoved by him. But he _knew_ that she had wanted to kiss him and he _knew _that she still did. Then what was her problem? Why did she keep avoiding him? What did that mean?

Frankly, right now he didn't give a damn about what it meant. Right then, the only thing he wanted to do was think about Ginny. Plain and simple; it was the only way to describe it.

The only thing he wanted to do for the rest of his life was to be with Ginny. 

He was slightly surprised that it actually _didn't_ surprise him. 

_Draco had really decided that he was going to kiss her from the moment she had walked up to him. But she had started talking and what she was saying seemed important. It had to be to get her all worked up like this. He could tell by the way that she was acting that she was nervous. At first he hadn't known why. She had started going on and on about something._

_"I kissed you," she had just said. Draco, of course – thinking that she was talking about when _he_ had kissed _her_ during their detention – had been confused and he stared at her blankly until she begun to explain a little further._

_She had kissed him while he was unconscious. So that made a little more sense then…_

_No… no it didn't make sense at all. Why would she want to kiss him? _

_Right, it had been a dare. That was she had just said to him. But she could have easily refused to do it and…_

_Draco froze as he heard her next sentence. _

_"No, listen to me Draco. I _thought_ I wasn't going to like it; I _thought_ it was going to be horrible but it wasn't. I… liked it,"_

_All Draco could do was stare blankly ahead. He continued to do so as she resumed talking._

_"I mean maybe it was because you were sleeping. Or maybe it was because I wasn't feeling well. But that doesn't matter because what I felt when I kissed you won't go away…believe me, I've tried."_

_He didn't stop his staring. Something in the back of his mind was telling him that that exact same thing had happened to him and – in vain – he had tried to make it go away too._

_He listened to what she said next._

_"Are you trying to say that you think I've…" he had cut her off and now she did the same to him._

_"Not necessarily thinking you did but… but hoping so."_

_She looked awfully embarrassed at the moment. Draco felt some odd emotion of realization speed through him but he pushed it down and changed his _expression to something bitter._

_"And what leads you to these conclusions, Weasley?"_

_Oh, how could he be so stupid? Someone needed to come and hack off his tongue before he ruined what could very well be happening right now._

_She didn't continue nor did she look like she could so Draco did instead._

_"Are you saying that you hope I might _like_ you?"_

_She actually cried. Not much. But Draco hated it. A single tear formed out of her eye and she wiped it away, probably hoping he hadn't seen it. But he had._

_"That's not what I said," she put in defiantly as if trying to convince herself as well. He wasn't persuaded. _

_"But it's what you implied," he said, his voice lowering a tone as he dared to take a step closer to her. _

_Draco found himself continuing with a slight frown on his face. _

_"But in this case, your implications would be right…"_

_He looked at her and desperately wished that he wouldn't lose his balance from all the odd things he was feeling. He ignored the murmurs of the crowd as they begun to turn their heads to see what was going on. He didn't even mind hearing one of the Gryffindors give a tiny gasp as he placed his hands on Ginny's lower arms. _

_She seemed to snap back into reality as he did so. She stared at him with wide brown eyes. _

_"Dra…"_

_He didn't let her finish because at that moment he thought that it was the best time to kiss her. And that's what he did. He kissed her. Something he honestly had been wanting to do since the first time it had happened during their night patrol. And that had been a long time he had to wait to do something he really wanted to._

_The hall had just gotten eerily quite. _

_Screw the other people in the room; they could all go to hell for all Draco cared. _

_His lips brushed against hers gently at first and then began to gain rhythm and speed like some intricate dance. _

_She seemed different this time. Sweeter, better, more alive…_

_And if she didn't kiss him back he wouldn't know what to do…_

_But she did and Draco was so pleased that he smiled although he was still kissing her. Her reaction to his kiss made him press against her harder yet he still tried to be gentle. Her arms – though seeming against her will – went up around his neck, her hands clung to him as if she was about to fall and needed support. _

_How could Draco possible keep her balance when he couldn't even manage his? That would be too much effort for him and he didn't want to put any energy into anything ever again except this kiss. As if he was passing his energy to her, and hers to him. Frankly, Draco didn't care if both of their knees gave away because it would be much easier to kiss her on the ground then up here where he was worried about falling simply because she made him dizzy with her presence. If that could have such an effect, this must be overwhelming for him but he didn't feel anything, just his lips moving against hers. _

_His mouth unintentionally began to lower. He was kissing her cheek, her jaw line, her neck; she seemed to cling to him harder. He moved back up to her mouth and kissed her lightly, wondering if he should take a breath now because he was indeed very breathless. No, that would be too much effort. He should just continue kissing her. _

_As he was about to bring his tongue into action she pulled away. _

_She actually pulled away. _

_Draco was shocked._

_"Ginny, why did you…" he started, very much out of breath, but he faltered as he realized just exactly why she had broken off._

_Her face was flushed very, _very _deep red as she glanced over his shoulder at the rest of the Great Hall, all of whom were staring straight at them with shocked expressions._

_"Draco," she started quietly, "Everyone just saw…"_

_"I know… you think I can't tell that?"_

_There was a loud clatter from the Gryffindor table._

_Ron had just dropped his fork in open mouthed horror._

_                  Draco's breathing was exceeding its normal rate. He wanted to kiss her again. Oh, these people ruined everything for him. His stomach was doing something odd. He ignored the voice in the back of his head telling him to run for it. He just stared at the hall; his mouth open and his lips still tingling from the kiss. Draco looked up to the teachers table. Somewhere beneath his slight panic he saw Dumbledore lean over and say something to Professor McGonagall with a beginning of a smile on his face._

_He had to get out. He had to leave. A buzz met his ears as he promised himself something else._

_He _wasn't _going to leave without Ginny._

_The couple seconds that he stood there mutely seemed like hours and even years. He'd kissed Virginia Weasley in front of the entire school. _Everyone_ would be talking about this. Especially just how _much_ he had just kissed her._

_                  He took a step back words to leave and looked at Ginny. She was staring at him; her red hair matching her face, her brown eyes wide and her bottom lip quivering. _

_"Ginny?" he said so only she could hear him as he nodded towards the door, motioning for her to follow. She just stared and slowly shook her head from side to side._

_Draco's face fell and it felt as though someone had just thrown a punch directly into his stomach. She didn't want to come with him._

_Swearing very loudly, he turned and walked briskly through the door._

_The hall erupted in noise as soon as he exited._

**Six days after "The Great Hall Incident"**

Professor Vexsta was pointing to the board as she explained different dueling positions and attacks. This was typically a lot of students' favorite part of Defense Against the Dark Arts. During times when this was taught, the students usually paid close attention, not wanting to miss a thing. This time however, something was different. Her seventh year Slytherins were acting odd. 

"What is wrong with all of you?" she said suddenly and she turned around and put her wand roughly on the desk in front of her as she glared at them. It's not that the students looked bored, just… distracted – confused even. And Draco Malfoy, in particular, looked the worse. And Pansy Parkinson, two seats away from him, looked ready to burst into tears. 

"Well?"

A few of them turned to look a Draco who clenched his teeth and narrowed his eyes as he glared at the edge of his desk. 

She continued to stare at them for a minute and then sighed.

"For Merlin's sake! It was just a _kiss_. The boy only kissed that poor Gryffindor, leave him alone already!"

She saw Draco Malfoy's cheeks and ears begin to tinge with pink.

"It wasn't _just_ a kiss," drawled a voice. Pansy glared over at Draco. "It was with that Gryffindor whore Ginny Weasley," 

Draco stood up angrily and was shaking as he glared at her. "Don't you _dare_ call her that…"

"Why? It's only what she is…"

He moved so fast that Professor Vexsta couldn't stop him in time. Within seconds Draco had leapt at her and Pansy had been pinned against the nearby wall by the hem of her cloak. Draco face was inches from hers.

"_Don't you dare call her that ever again._ I mean it Parkinson, you wench, and it'll be the last thing you do…" he hissed 

"Mr. Malfoy – Ms. Parkinson! Stop it this instant!"

Draco didn't let her go, he only tightened his grip. Wow, this kid was violent. 

"_Mr. Malfoy!_ Put her down!"

Draco narrowed his eyes at Pansy and seemed to hesitate but finally released his hold her. Pansy whimpered and sank to the floor. 

The lesson continued with a tense air and Draco was asked to stay behind at class had ended. 

As he put away his things, he didn't dare look up at the Professor. Of course, he didn't feel ashamed. Nothing of the sort. He had never liked Vextsa and now didn't seem the right time to start. And whatever happened to her supposed connection with Voldemort? Well, it's not as if he cared anymore. None of that really mattered. 

After he was finished Draco walked slowly up to her front desk to see that Vextsa was already waiting for him. 

"Mr. Malfoy…" she started. 

"Yes, yes I know. It was very horrid of me to do that. May I skip the lecture and go to my next class?" he said rather icily.

Her eyes narrowed as she stared at her student closely. 

"No, you may _not_ go to your next class just yet," she said. "What you just did was unacceptable."

Draco suddenly launched forward into explanation. "But she called…!"

"I understand what she said and that it may have been hurtful to you because of…"

"Hurtful? To me?" Draco stammered. "I don't know what you're talking about Professor, but if…"

"Don't play fool with me, Malfoy. You know exactly what I'm talking about, probably more than I do. Obviously, there is something happening between you and the youngest Weasley. Now, although many would wish to know what exactly _is_ going on, it is no one's business but your's and Ms. Weasley's. However, that does not mean you can go around harassing your classmates whenever you simply feel like it. That does not justify what Ms. Parkinson said but you need to be able to control your actions or they will get you in trouble." 

Draco wasn't exactly listening but nodded solemnly all the same.

"No, I'm going to have to take points from Slytherin on behalf of Ms. Parkinson's behavior but I'm afraid that I'm going to have to administer you with detention."

"What?! Why?" 

"Because your behavior was unexpectedly childish, and classroom etiquette does not call for it. Now, I suggest that you go to your next class and try not to harm any innocent bystanders on your way…"

And so, Draco's reign of "unexpectedly childish" behavior began. Anyone even so much as looked at him wrong and they'd be wishing they had never gotten their acceptance letter to Hogwarts. 

Unsurprisingly, this earned Draco a number of detentions and points were often taken away more often than not.

So, Draco sat on his bed, most angry in particular at the last detention he received – feeling that the teachers must be plotting against him. How else would they catch him _every _time he got into a fight?

Draco threw his pillow angrily against the opposite wall over Blaise's bed which was currently unoccupied. So was every other bed aside from his in the dormitory. It bounced off silently and landed on top of the duvet.

It was a beautiful February afternoon. Although they usually had cold weather this time of the year, surprisingly there was a nice warm breeze and the sun was bright. Many of the students took advantage of it being a weekend and were outside. Not him. No thank you. 

Yes, it was very unlike Draco to sulk about getting a silly detention but this time was different, different than the other times that week. 

Because – and this was the most horrible part – he had to spend it with Ginny. 

He had _merely_ been trying to tell her how he felt about… her. Only… it had come out wrong, very wrong. The row that pursued had been horrible for Draco. She really misunderstood easily.

It had gone about as normal as all their other fights. He'd throw an insult at her and she'd snap back so quickly and efficiently that Draco didn't think it was humanly possible for someone to do so.

But then Vector had to walk by and see them and he got a detention again. _Again. _

Didn't the teachers learn that putting Draco and Ginny in detention _wouldn't solve anything_?

However, this was – in a way – going to be a form of punishment for him. He couldn't bear to be near her. It was horrible. She wouldn't look at him, she wouldn't talk to him. Most of the time it didn't even seem if she had acknowledged him at _all_.

But _he_ wanted to talk to her – _he_ wanted to see her, and perhaps do more than that. But how could he do that if she tried with all her might just not to be in the same room with him for very long. 

What was wrong with her? She had said that she liked him. She had said all that stuff back in the Great Hall. What was the matter now? Why wouldn't she just bloody make up her damn mind so he could stop all this moping around business?

It's not like it was any fun or something. Draco was having a horrible time. 

Oh, and it was the worst from the Gryffindors, especially Harry and Ron. Draco shuddered as he thought about it. Ron had been horrified but quickly realized the amusement of this situation. From what he could tell, Draco had been turned down by his little sister numerous times. He absolutely loved making fun of Draco for it. And Harry had no problem joining in on it. However, Hermione – the Mudblood – didn't seem to want to have anything to do with this. 

Draco often saw her having deep, private discussions with Ginny and when they would notice he was looking Ginny would blush, Hermione would narrow her eyes and look at him knowingly, and they'd walk away. It was starting to really get on his nerves.

At least _all_ hope wasn't lost; she still wore his bracelet very securely around her wrist at all times.

He was just about to chuck another pillow when the door opened. His arm froze in mid air.

"Hey Dra – what the _hell_ are you doing?" It was Blaise. He noted Draco's behavior with upraised eyebrows. Draco didn't greet him.

"I'm venting some energy…" Draco said, finishing off his toss with a flourish. Blaise's eyebrows didn't return to their normal position yet.

"You mean anger?" he asked, sitting on the edge of his own bed just as the pillow toppled off of it. 

"No. Go away," Draco said firmly. 

Blaise sighed as he started taking off his cloak. He straightened his robes and continued to stare at Draco curiously. 

"You know," he said slowly, "you don't have to lie about it… I already pretty much know what's going on…"

"Oh do you now? Fine, call it frustration. I'm letting out my frustration," Draco leaned back into his bed and stared at the ceiling.

"By mutilating my bed?" Blaise asked with a smirk.

"It's not hurting it, they're only pillows,"

Blaise stared at him as thought he was waiting for him to continue. 

"What are you frustrated about, Draco?" he asked after it seemed that Draco wasn't going to. 

"That's none of your business,"

"It's very much my business because your bad mood tends to affect me," he said a-matter-of-factly.

"How so?" 

"Whenever you're mad or – er, _frustrated_ you take it out on other people,"

"Do not,"

"Do too. And you also do things like…" Blaise leaned over and picked up a pillow from the ground. It was almost all the way ripped in half and the white cotton filling was spilling out, "this."

"I didn't do that," Draco said non-convincingly.

"It's got to do with that Gryffindor girl you kissed. I already know. Just tell me what's going on…"

Draco sighed. "It hurts…" he muttered truthfully feeling a deep pain in the pit of his stomach. Blaise seemed to perk up and this.

"What hurts?" he asked anxiously with a slight worried tone. Draco looked him squarely in the eyes.

"Your face will if you don't leave me the hell alone…" he said venomously.

Blaise only sighed and leaned back into the pillows. It didn't seem as if he was going to get any information out of Draco. Not just yet. It might take awhile. You never knew these things when you were dealing with a Malfoy. They were very unpredictable. 

"Blaise," Draco said suddenly and his tone was almost defeated, "she won't talk to me – she won't look at me. I hate it," he said angrily. 

Blaise's eyes widened.

"So that means that you really do – " 

"Yes, now go the hell away."

Blaise didn't seem to want to leave now that he was getting somewhere. He still sat at the edge of his own bed, staring at Draco.

"You like her, then…" he mumbled. Draco only responded by letting out an angry puff of air. Blaise continued. 

"For how long?"

Draco looked at him, wondering if he should answer. It really wouldn't hurt _to_ tell him. They'd all find out eventually.

"A very long time," Draco said evenly, not looking at him. He heard Blaise shift his weight on his bed. 

"And you haven't given up?"

There was silence and then suddenly.

"Of course not, and I'm not about to."

They just sat there on opposite sides of the room and suddenly Blaise's voice broke their lack of conversation.

"That's never happened to me…"

"What hasn't?"

"I've never liked a girl as much as you like her…"

"What?" Draco sat up in his bed. "Who said a thing about how much I like her?"

"Calm down…" Blaise said as Draco started to lean back into his bed again.

"I can just tell by the way you act. You've been acting different… nicer even. More restrained with what you do. And now you're even sad that it didn't work out the way you wanted…"

"I'm not sad, screw you. And I haven't been acting different…"

"Yes you have and you still are… you wouldn't have told me _any_ of this in the first place if you had been acting normal. I wouldn't have even been able to get passed the 'I'm venting some energy' reply from you… in fact; you wouldn't have been letting out frustration in the first place because none of this would have happened if you hadn't _really_ liked this girl…"

Draco clenched his teeth and continued to stare at the ceiling.

"And don't act like I'm wrong either because you know it's true. Before you were around her so much you were one meanest, hardest guys I knew. And I mean that as a compliment…"

They were quiet again for a little while. Draco tried to think of what Blaise was saying to him. 

"So what's her name anyway?" Blaise asked.

Draco didn't open his eyes from when he had closed them a few minutes earlier. 

"Ginny Weasley," he said hoarsely. He saw Blaise smirk.

"So it's not Malfoy yet? When are we going to be hearing the wedding be – whoa! Did you saw _Weasley?_" Draco, childishly, put his hands over his face and nodded.

"Are you serious?"  
"Very," Draco said miserably. 

"Weasley…. But won't your father…?"

"I know, I know…" he said.

"Oh…" Blaise paused. "_Oh…_"

Draco frowned. "Oh what?"

"If _my_ father knew that I liked a Weasley… that would be the end of me. And _your _father's worse than mine is (and I mean that as a compliment…). You must _really_ like –"

"Blaise, will you quit?"

But Blaise only persisted. 

"You're father will kill you, you know?"

"I _know_…"

"But you know what? I bet he could do worse things… I heard there's this one Dark Arts spell that…"

"Blaise, please shut up,"

"No listen… it's really bad. What it does is erases the memory of a person so that they forget everything that has to do with something. So... if your father used it against her because of you… he could easily take away _all_ of her memories with you so that she couldn't even remember your name and would think that nothing happened. And you would be getting a side of it was well as you would have to live with the memory of her but would always know she didn't even recognize you and…"

"Blaise, shut up! That _isn't_ going to _happen_!"

Blaise amazingly grew quiet for at least a little while. But again, a few minutes later, his voice rang out.

"Do you like kissing her?" he asked. Again, as with many of the other questions, Draco didn't answer at first. 

"Yes…" he said evenly. 

"Was it the first time? In the hall I mean…"

"No."

"Is she why you broke up with Pansy?"

"What is with all these questions?"

"I'm just asking… is she?

"…yeah…"

"Wow… I'm sure Ginny might be nice and all but Pansy sure is a lot more ho-"

"No she isn't," Draco said firmly and a little louder than he first thought, suddenly feeling defensive of Ginny. He didn't care if Pansy was _hotter_ than Ginny.

"Pansy hasn't got _anything_ over Ginny. And she never will…" 

Blaise surprisingly didn't ask any more questions after that. He must've got the point. 

**One Day later. Hey… we need to get this story moving don't we?**

Slowly, Draco trudged out onto the grounds. He felt as if he were being led to his own execution. His heart was heavy and his head bowed. Half of him was excited to see Ginny again and the other was afraid of what would happen when he did.

It was cold and damp from the previous storm. Draco had been careful to make sure he brought his extra cloak. He wrapped it around himself for warmth and was surprised to see that when he got there, Ginny hadn't brought one. She was standing in the Green House talking to Professor Sprout, and looking rather cold. Professor Sprout seemed to be slightly irritated and neither of them noticed Draco come in. He watched with a raised eyebrow.

"…rather ridiculous _I_ think," Professor Sprout was saying. Ginny rolled her eyes and tried to subdue the shivers.

"I'm fine, _really_. There's nothing wrong,"

"But you kids will be working _outside_, in the cold, and it could _rain._ And look," Professor Sprout had just spotted him, "he's brought _his_ own…"

Ginny suddenly noticed him and paled. "I don't care that he brought his…." She mumbled.

"His own what?" Draco asked, stepping into the conversation.

"Your own cloak dear, the extra one. You brought it because it's cold, did you not?"

"Well, yeah," Draco nodded slowly.

Professor Sprout turned back to Ginny.

"I guess I'll have to let you learn the hard way instead. Try not to catch a cold while you're out there… Pomfrey would kill me…"

Professor Sprout sighed. "Well, you two should be starting, I want you to try and get this all done as soon as possible. If you need me, I'll be in Green House six."

She handed a large bucket of water and an odd looking rag to Ginny. She did the same for Draco.

"Give me you wands, both of you," she ordered, holding out her hands. Draco glared at her. "Exactly what is our detention supposed to be?" he asked, slowly handing over his wand as he stared at the bucket.

"You'll be cleaning the Green House windows – _no_ magic,"

Draco's mouth dropped. "All of the…"

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy, all of the windows – _all_ of the Green Houses."

Ginny stared at her blankly. "But – how many Green Houses _are_ there?"

"Ten total. I'd get started if I wanted to be done by breakfast…"

Draco groaned. 

About three and a half hours later they were almost finished… with Green House three that is. Each "house" was taking roughly an hour and every once in a while they still had to refill their buckets and get more soap. They had made sort of a routine; Draco would stand up on the ladder and Ginny would take care of everything she could reach from the ground. Aside from small directions to the other, neither of them talked.

Ginny moved the rag in circle across the glass. As she saw some of the bubbles fading she dipped her hand back into the bucket and continued. Big long circles along the windows. She had about two more panels to go and Draco seemed to have the same amount. They worked in silence. More circles then.

After a few minutes she noticed her water going low. She looked up at Draco. 

"I have to go and get more soap. 'Be back in a bit,"

When she heard him grunt she knew she was okay to leave.

She walked slowly with her bucket gripped in both of her hands. He had been like that the while night. No… not grunting… just quiet in general. He would barely respond to her when she tried to talk.

She had been watching him during the night. She could tell that he knew she was but he never acknowledged or told her to do otherwise, so she continued.

Ginny could feel the ache in her stomach as she remembered how he looked up on the ladder. His hair had fallen in front of his face and it shone in the little sunlight that there was. His eyes had stayed on his work and seemed so concentrated. Concentrated on what, she wasn't sure. She'd watched as he bit softly on his lower lip in deep thought. Every time, Ginny would hope he was thinking about her and she felt a surge of happiness when he took the smallest of glances at her. She wouldn't even mind that every time he did he'd make up some excuse like he was only checking if the ladder was secure; as if it would change since the last five minutes when he'd "checked" it before. And the after his brief moment of thinking she'd head him give a sigh and it made her want to run up on that ladder and hug and kiss him senseless. Of course, she could very well do that and that's what made her so mad at herself. She wanted to kiss him so bad but she knew, she just _knew_ that it was the wrong thing. He couldn't _possibly _like her for just… her. It must be lust or something, she didn't care what Hermione said people had told her…

Yeah, that's it! Spending so much time with her must have caused him some kind of sexual tension and he just had to let it out and who else with but weak little Ginny Weasley? He probably thought he could control her or something, didn't he?

Well, then he was right. If he asked her, she would probably jump off a broomstick 100 feet in the air without a second thought – as if it was the most natural thing in the world. And that would only be because he asked her. 

And if he kissed her? Well, she would just have to die right then and there. When he had kissed her earlier that week… well, it must have been _the_ most _amazing_ kiss in history. The boy must be a Sex God or something…

Oh no… now she would be forever referring to Draco as a Sex God…

Actually… it didn't sound half bad…

Oh, she couldn't get him out of her mind. The sight of him, the smell of him, the taste of him. It was all so _wonderful_. 

Ginny at first had thought that what she felt was only physical attraction. But deep down she knew it wasn't, because she liked _him._ Even though he was annoying and mean sometimes, she was addicted to who he was. She loved his sarcasm, his sneers, his drawls, his lack of caring, his ability to stay cool in almost any situation. She loved his humor, his laugh – whether it was deep and mocking or genuinely _adorable_, his faithfulness to the things he care about, his knowledge, the way he thought that no one was better than him. In her eyes he wasn't conceited, he was just very confident with himself. Everything that was bad about him found some way to seem good to her.

Controlling her, was he? Ha! He had her on strings dammit! 

She walked carefully back with a full bucket only a few minutes later.

Draco – oh God, he was gorgeous – was almost done with his last panel now. He turned as he heard her coming

"I'd hurry it up if I were you…" he said, his voice unreadable, "you'd want to get finished roughly at the same time as me so we can move to Green House four together… or…well, I guess I could wait for you,"

Ginny stared at him before she realized he was waiting for her reply. He wanted to go the Green house four with her? He'd wait for her? With a lurch in her stomach she answered.

"Oh, right…okay."

She set off to work quickly. For the next several minutes they worked in the regular silence. It was becoming evident to Ginny that she was indeed very stupid to not bring an extra cloak, as it was now _freezing_ outside. She shivered and looked up at Draco. He looked perfectly (of course…) warm. Damn him. Why couldn't he just there and wrap his nice warm arms around her like some nice warm thing the ould? Then all would be wall and she would be happy. Perhaps he would as well.

She continued to think of how warm they would be, snuggled up in one of the Green Houses, when suddenly a lot of noise met her. There was a great deal of creaking – wood probably – and mumbling – Draco probably – coming from his direction. 

"Um…" his voice cracked the chilling air. "Do you think you could come over here and hold the ladder for a bit? It's getting really wobbly,"

Again with the strings and the controlling–ness. Hold the ladder? Hell, she get up on the ladder with him and wouldn't _care_ if it fell. She'd be content being near the damn ladder.

"Yes I'll hold the ladder, Mr. Sex God…" she mumbled.

"What was that?" he asked quickly. Ginny shook her head.

"Nothing,"

Suddenly, she remembered that he had been serious about the ladder thing and she rushed to help him…

She wasn't nearly fast enough. With a loud crash the wooden ladder toppled to the ground and Draco's swearing could be heard across the campus.

Ginny's heart leapt into her throat as she frantically searched the ground for him. 

_Please don't be hurt – Please oh please don't be hurt…_

She didn't see him anywhere and her concern grew considerably. What if he was hurt? What if he broke his leg? Or his arm? Or cracked his head open? What if the almighty Sex God was dead?!

"I'm up here, idiot!" his voice called angrily.

Ginny nearly died of happiness. "Draco, you're okay!" she said as she turned to him. His annoyance seemed to subside a little as he noticed her concern.

She looked at him. He was holding onto the ledge of the roof. Her heart pounded in her chest.

That's it. She would just put the ladder back up. Nice and simple as anything. She turned to the ladder again.

Ginny swore rarely, but this seemed to really call for it.

She stared numbly at the ladder; cracked right through the middle.

"Dammit!"

"_What_? Where's the ladder? I can't hold on forever, Ginny!"

"Oh _Draco_… the ladder it – it _broke_,"

"_What_?!"

She heard one of his hands slip.

"Fuck…! Then how am I supposed to get down?"

"I don't know, I – I'll catch you!"

"No you will _not_," he said firmly, "quit being so dense,"

"Well it's the only idea I have…"

"That doesn't mean it's a good one!"

"Ooh… I know, I know. I'll run to Green House six and get Professor Sprout. She'll come back with a wand and help you down,"

Why hadn't she thought of that first? Oh right… she had liked the idea of a Sex God toppling down on her.

"You'd better hurry because I don't know how long I can stay up here," 

"Okay…" But Ginny stared at him for a moment. She couldn't leave. He could hurt himself… he need her. Something turned in the pit of her stomach. What if he fell while she was gone? What if he…

"Hurry up dammit!"

"Okay, okay!" 

Ignoring the fact that she was freezing and her joints were frozen stiff, Ginny ran as fast as she could to Green House six. The ground was wet and she constantly lost her footing but she didn't care. She had to find Professor Sprout.

When she approached her destination she was very nearly out of breath but she didn't have time to catch it. She opened the door quickly and thrust herself inside; panting for air.

"Professor Sprout, Professor Sprout, Draco is…!"

But she broke off when she realized that – aside from the numerous collections of odd plants – the Green House was empty.

Her concern escaladed to fear. She could try and _find_ Professor Sprout. That would just take much to long and she could be _anywhere._ Draco needed help. He couldn't wait that long. It must've already been ten minutes or so.

She slammed the door behind her and began to run back to Draco. Suddenly, something caused her to stop. Something small and wet had fallen on the tip of her nose. She frowned and…

Wait… there it was again, only this time on her lower lip.

She held out her hand in confusion and realized what it was. They were rain drops…

It was raining!

Horrible pictures came to her mind. Draco could slip… he could crack his head on the ground and there'd be no one to save him. Her eyes welled with tears and she tried to push the site of him falling out of her mind with something _good_ that the rain had cause. It worked for a while and made her want to get to him faster. 

_The rain poured down in thick sheets that were ice cold. Ginny held out her hand and watched some gather about in her palm. She shivered but didn't go inside. The cold helped her think well. She looked down at the small silver bracelet Draco had given her. It felt oddly warm and comforting against her skin and the only thing that she needed now was for Draco himself to be here too._

_She sighed and tried to subdue her shaking. It was no use to come out here to think and only be able to do so about how cold you were._

_It had only been a day since the incident in the Great Hall. Whenever Ginny thought about it she got this odd feeling of longing in the pit of her stomach and felt as though she was going to cry. She had, right after leaving that night. She'd cried herself to sleep because she had liked him so much but everything was so wrong. _

_She had stood there, in the Great Hall; confused, scared, happy, and something else all at the same time. Draco had left. He'd asked her to come with him…_

_So why the hell _hadn't _she gone with him? It was stupid really. But he had gone and Ginny was standing alone in the middle of the Great Hall with almost everyone – including teachers – staring at her and waiting to see what she did next. She vaguely noticed the small smirk on Dumbledore's kind face and the slightly shocked and amused one on McGonagall's. Snape, on the other hand, seemed as though he was going to faint, vomit, or run around naked pronouncing that the world was coming to an end. Ginny had thought that he might perhaps do all; he was certainly crazy enough to…_

_And Ron was staring at her…and so was Dean. She didn't give a damn about Ron but she felt distantly sorry for Dean. Seeing your girlfriend snogging one of your enemies is _never_ a good thing. What if she had been with Harry? That would have been so completely ironic she would probably laugh years following it…_

I bet I'm in love with him_, she thought dazedly as she stared at the exit of the Great Hall. _I bet that I've loved him for a long time and just haven't realized it. I probably even loved him when he's acting like King Prat.

And he probably doesn't even love _me_… 

_Without warning, Ginny ran out of the Great Hall and didn't stop until she reached her dormitory. She had flung herself on her bed. The tears followed immediately. Ginny had that same feeling that you get when you think that whole world is against you. It probably was, in her case. At least… that's how it seemed. Why couldn't she be with Draco? Because no one wanted her to. The Slytherin's didn't. The Gryffindor's didn't. She knew that Ron would be against it… and so would Bill… and Charlie, and Fred and George, and Percy… And then her parents would be disappointed. And knowing Draco's family, they'd be furious…_

_So… she came to the conclusion that the world _was_ against her…_

_Ginny's sobbing had grown harder into her pillow._

_She was sobbing because she couldn't have him. She was sobbing because he was probably using her. She was sobbing because he had kissed her… she was sobbing because she realized just exactly how much she wanted him. Because she realized exactly how he made her feel. Like she was the only one in the world he cared about, the only one worth noticing…_

_And he was probably even lying. Hell, she hadn't known him that long… she wasn't familiar with exactly everything that he had done and couldn't pinpoint everything about his personality and how he thought. He was lying to her then… this was a game that he was playing probably to get off of boredom. _

_And it was horrible that she still seemed to care about him even after all this._

_"Why…" she had asked, "why does this have to happen to me?" _

_Suddenly, there was a low creaking sound. _

_"Ginny?" came Hermione voice timidly. Ginny heard the door shut behind her_

_"Unmfpt… what?" she said sadly into the pillow. _

_"I… wanted to talk to you…" she said. Ginny felt the bed droop down as Hermione sat on it._

_"About what?" Ginny asked. She sobbed, "Did you come to say good-bye to me? You should because in a few minutes I'll be dead. I want to die. I deserve to die and suffer slowly and painfully. I don't want to live anymore… my life doesn't…" _

_"Ginny… shut up for a second," Hermione said, cutting through Ginny's slightly bitter and mocking tone. "You're not going to die, and I doubt that you want to… I'm sure Malfoy doesn't want you to either…"_

_This caused a great trouble with Ginny. "How (_sob_) do you know (_sob_) what he (_sob_) wants? (_more sobs_) He doesn't care about me… you're only (_sob_) saying that to make me feel better…"_

_"Ginny… I just know. Ron told me that he got Malfoy to admit that he had feelings for you and Harry said that when he was teasing him about you during the Quidditch match, Malfoy got all shirty and nearly was ready to kill Harry. And I also heard him yelling at Parkinson after you were taken out of the game. Ginny… he was furious you were hurt. And the fact that he had caught you in the first place shows that he cares what happens to you. He could have just let Harry catch you because you know he would have, he was nearly there, but Malfoy wanted to save you on his own. And Ginny… he looked _worried_ when you sat there all bloody and not moving in his arms. It must've took you at least a minute to come to. And I know that I really, really, don't like Malfoy, but I have to admit that he's gotten softer since… since you,"_

_Hermione had been rubbing Ginny's back the whole time and talking in a soothing voice. _

_"I heard him yelling at Parkinson too…"Ginny mumbled after a few minutes. _

_Hermione had stayed there talking to Ginny for the rest of the night. Now, as Ginny sat in the rain, she was glad for the comfort that Hermione had been able to give her then. Now Ginny just sat alone out on the Quidditch pitch. She didn't even feel like talking to Samantha right now. _

_She was in the middle of some more serious thinking when she heard footsteps on the wet ground behind her. She didn't bother to turn around, thinking that it would be Ron or something._

_"What do you want?" she asked miserably. The person continued walking to her. _

_"That's no way to talk to me…" a deep husky voice said with amusement. She felt her insides freeze and her heart stop pounding. Why was he here… why was he – of all people – here?_

_"Draco," she said quietly, pretending to take interest in the back of her hands. "What are you doing here?" _

_"Well, I thought I'd take a stroll around the grounds for a bit… I couldn't get to sleep…" _

_"In the _rain?" _she asked suspiciously. _

_"Isn't that what you're doing?" he drawled. Ginny managed to let out a shaky breath. _

_"I suppose. But do you have to…" she stopped in mid-sentence as Draco sat down on the ground next to her… his hand rested on top of hers. Her heart began beating this time, only it was much more furiously than it had been before._

_He seemed to notice her change immediately._

_"Do you not like my hand there?" he asked simply. Oh God she wanted to kiss him…_

_"No, it's fine. I don't mind…" she said quickly. "Fine… it's fine…" His hand seemed to close over hers more tightly after she said this. His hand was warm and shockingly white against hers._

_"Why did you come here?" she asked after a few minutes. She was still shivering like mad and her hair was starting to stick to her head. Draco seemed unmoved by the rain._

_"Why didn't you follow me?" he asked evenly, carefully avoiding eye contact with her. Ginny wanted to look at him then but she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to turn away once she did. She heard Draco swallow roughly._

_"Well?" he asked. _

_"I… don't know,"_

_"Don't lie, Ginny. You have a reason and I want to know it. I deserve to know it…"_

_"You don't deserve it," she lied, just as she had done before. "Draco, you're just complicating things for me. I don't know what I'm supposed to do anymore. People are looking at me oddly, some tease me, Ron is furious even if he doesn't want to show it, Harry just keeps laughing every time that he sees me, and I've already lost Dean…"_

_His hand was gripping tighter on hers again. "You don't care about Dean,"_

_Again she lied. "Yes I do," _

_She heard Draco sigh and they were silent for a moment. After a few minutes he spoke._

_"So," he said slowly, "the only reason that you aren't with me is because people don't _want _you to be? Because people _laugh_? Because your brother's _mad_ and people _look_ at you? People look at me all the time…"_

_"No, that's not what I…"_

_"It sounds stupid to me. Ginny, how do you think _my_ father's going to act? What do you think he's going to say… or _do_? I'm in a worse boat than you are and I'm still willing to work things out but you're just being stubborn," he was beginning to sound hurt. Ginny's stomach churned. _

_"Draco…" she said, "please don't…just – just leave me alone,"_

_He didn't say anything and slowly he moved his hand away from hers. _

_"Ginny, you must be freezing," he said finally. _

_"No, I'm fine," she said shortly, still not looking at him. It was hard though, because he had now positioned himself in front of her. _

_"You're going to catch a cold…" _

_"No really, I'm fine…" but Draco was already unclasping his Slytherin cloak._

Please don't put it on me… _she thought, _Please, I wouldn't be able to bare that…

_She felt his heavy cloak wrap around her wet shoulders. She closed her eyes as he began to re-clasp it slowly. When he was finished he rested his hands on her chest, still holding the silver buttons in his fingers. _

_"I think it's stupid that we can't work this out…" he said suddenly. "It's completely idiotic." _

_"Draco…" _

_He cut her off. "You shouldn't _care_ what all those wankers at the school think… they don't matter. I've embarrassed myself so much that I don't even bother with them any longer." _

_Ginny finally willed herself to look at him. His hair was matted to his forehead, his cold eyes were blazing, and a drop of water was trickling down his pointed nose. She watched as he carefully brushed it away with the back of his hand. Slowly, his hands still on her, he began to lean forward. His eyes began to close and Ginny had the sudden thought that he was going to kiss her. Her stomach turned to lead and she pressed her lips together so that he wouldn't have access to them. He was getting closer – why did it seem to take so long for him to move a couple of inches? – and she could feel his warmth, could smell him…_

_At the last minute Ginny turned her head and Draco ended up planting a kiss on her cheek. He sat there with his lips pressed against her skin and he was taking deep controlling breaths. Ginny found that his hands had moved to her shoulders and were now shaking as they held on. He didn't move for quite some time. _

_Ginny could feel her heart pounding in her ribcage, they were going to break it was so hard. She was taking deep shaky breaths. She wanted to turn her head, grab him, and kiss him like mad but she couldn't. Then all of this would have gone to waste if she were to do that._

_"Draco," she said softly, "I think… I think it would be best if you were to just leave…"_

_But he had already pulled off of her and was slowly walking back toward the castle, his head and shoulders drooping slightly. Ginny sighed and didn't bother stopping her tears._

_"I'm sorry Draco," she said quietly to herself, clutching onto his cloak, which he had left behind. Slowly, she looked down at it. It was warm and it had a small crest on it, just like her Gryffindor one, except its colors were green and silver for Slytherin. It reminded her of him, it smelt like him, and it matched almost perfectly with her bracelet. Maybe he had planned it that way – the bracelet that is. Maybe he had wanted her to match him. She knew he wouldn't miss this cloak… he had others… perhaps he would let her keep it, then. _

_Well… she wasn't going to ask. She didn't feel like seeing him again, not now, not ever, because she knew the next time she wouldn't be able to resist him as she just had._

When he came into view she realized that he was indeed slipping. In fact, if something didn't happen right then, he was going to fall.

Oh God…

Ginny decided what she was going to do and it happened so fast that one minute she was standing in shock a good 20 yards away from the Green House, and the next she was on the ground with a Sex God sprawled on top of her, groaning in pain (Sex Gods weren't supposed to groan in pain… maybe in other things but pain wasn't supposed to be on the list…). She had tried to stick to her original plan of catching him and it had worked…

…well, sort of.

"What the hell happened?" he asked, wincing. 

"I… broke your fall," she said simply as she looked up at him. Draco closed his eyes momentarily.

"I told you, you couldn't catch me," he said faintly. Ginny bit her lip.

"Yeah… well, I – "

He cut her off with a dry laugh. "You're an idiot."

Ginny continued to look at him and – being as his eyes were still closed – took the opportunity to make sure he wasn't hurt. He had a bruise over his left eye but other than that he was perfectly fine. It suddenly dawned on Ginny that he was still on top of her. Her heart pounded and her stomach churned. She bit down on her lip, not being able to refuse him for much longer.

But how could she do anything if she was supposed to try and stay away from him? 

Ah-ha! She had a brilliant idea. If she merely looked as if she was overreacting than…

Yes! Of course. It was _perfect! _Why hadn't she thought of it before?

Ginny flung her arms around him, made a big show of braking down into tears, and buried her face in his shoulder. Draco's eyes snapped open immediately in surprise.

"Oh Draco, you're okay," she said happily. 

He choked on his response. " I – of course I am,"

Ginny noticed that his demeanor softened and she cheerfully noted that he – almost on impulse – returned the hug (even though it was rather loosely…).

She just leaned against him for a while. He was warm, just as she had thought. Oh, and he smelt _wonderful_. Like a fresh forest or a meadow. Just like he had smelt when he was unconscious. She clung to him harder and she was sure he could feel her heart beat.

"I thought you were going to _die_…"

Oh God, would he _really _buy this?

"Will you quit overreacting, Ginny?" she grinned against him – no 'Weasley' this time, "I'm perfectly fine,"

"I'm just glad you're alright," she said, realizing she had yet another opportunity to take advantage of the situation. Ginny leaned up and kissed him soundly on the cheek, letting her lips stay pushed against him as she just sat there, taking in his wonderful sent.

Draco had frozen under her contact; his hands were now gripping her back. And as she began to pull away from him, Draco turned his head and – before she was out of reach – caught her lips in his.

A million emotions shot through her veins like a shock of electricity and her arms automatically clung lower to his back; pressing him against her. Draco pushed her to the ground – never breaking the contact with her lips – so that he was fully on top of her now. He loosened his arms so that his hands could cup her face.

Ginny was in complete bliss. Draco was kissing her. He was… No! No, this was wrong! She couldn't do this… she _couldn't_. It was so completely wrong.

She tried to ignore the fact that it felt so _right_. Like they were meant for each other. Her lips made for his. Her…

NO!

No, no, no, no, _no_…

She turned her head and instantly – boom! – the contact was broken. 

Draco lay on top of her, his chest rising and falling rapidly. His eyes shot open and he scanned her face in shock.

"_What_?" he said angrily, "What is it exactly that I'm doing wrong?" he spat the words at her slowly. She closed her eyes and her lip quivered. 

"Well?"

"I don't know Draco…"

He let out an annoyed breath. "What _is_ it? Because I don't get it. I _know_ you like me, and _you _know that I… am… oh, I just don't _get _it!"

He took her silence and shaky breaths as an answer to continue.

"Is there something _wrong_ with me? It that why?" 

Ginny choked back her tears.

"Well?"

"No," she said miserably, "There isn't a _single _thing wrong with you. And it's not fair,"

Draco stared at her for a while and finally pushed off of her and stood up.

"I don't get you, Ginny Weasley, "he said, looking down at her, "and I think it'll be a long time before I ever will,"

They cleaned for the next several hours in a horrible, tense, silence. 

Draco realized now, as he entered his room after the long bout of cleaning, that this whole avoiding Ginny or controlling himself while he was around her was not going to work at all. No, not one bit. It was much too hard and he already proved to be unsuccessful at it.

Well, then what was he supposed to do? Obviously, something was wrong with her. There was a reason that she kept ignoring him and turning away before anything happened. But why couldn't he make her see that they could work it out. Was she _blind_?

Draco flopped down on his bed with exhaustion ready to fall asleep. One thing, however, kept him awake for a while.

She had called him a Sex God. 

Ginny thought he was a Sex God…?

_Brilliant!_   
  


**Five days later. Saturday night. Quidditch pitch.**   
  
When it came to Quidditch, Draco was usually brutal to his team. There were no friends here, nor enemies, all there was, was the game. He never let anyone slack off, including Blaise. He was tough and was constantly making them practice. With the last game of the season coming up, the one that determined who won the cup, Draco was running his team harder than ever. 

"Listen up, you guys," Draco addressed the rest of the team, "we did well against Gryffindor in the last match but we could have done better. Our last game of the season is Ravenclaw so we've got to stay focused and do our best at the match. I want you to go to no ends to win this game. Foul them as much as you can; our main goal is to stop them from scoring. They're in second place at the moment and a win would get them the cup," he looked at them all seriously. "This is my last year and my last game and I don't want any screw ups from any of you, do you got that?"

A few of them nodded solemnly.

"Zabini," he turned to Blaise. "I want you to do you best at the hoops. If everything goes right they'll be taking a lot of foul shots and I'll need you to stop them."

"I will, Draco… but, what's the point of coming out here this late at night, in the rain, to practice? Couldn't we have come out tomorrow morning?"

"That's exactly the reason. Every time you have to play in harsh conditions – all of you – you bitch and moan about it. I can't control the weather and you've got to know how to play in it…"

"But we already _do_ know how to play in it,"

"Pitchard, the next time you interrupt me, you're off the team. You guys need more practice, and its people like you," he glared at the third year. "And _you_ Blaise, who bring the team down. Every game we have is in bad weather. It's either too hot, too cold, raining, or snowing. And that is where we always mess up."

"But Draco, we've practiced and practiced five days a week for months, don't we deserve a break? The match against Ravenclaw isn't even scheduled until late March."

"Pansy, all _you've _got to worry about is not giving me another poor performance like last game."

"Poor performance?!" she shouted.

"Now today, we're going to work on some drills with the chasers. I want the beaters to act as if they're on the other team and are trying to stop them from scoring..."

"What the hell do you mean by 'poor performance'??"

The locker room grew quiet at her outburst. Some might have had the nerve to interrupt or backtalk to their captain but what she had done was beyond the line. 

"You idiot," Blaise hissed as Draco turned to glare at her. "He's going to take you out."

But she wasn't listening to him. "All you cared about was that I hit your…"

"Pansy," Draco broke in before she said anything. "Calm down."

The rest of the team stared in shock at how composed he had sounded and that he wasn't furious at her by now.

He was, Draco was just trying not to show it yet.

"But…"

"Pansy," he warned. "I'll talk to you after the team goes out. Stevens," he turned to a dark haired boy in his fourth year. "I want you to take over for beater while Pansy can't play, I'm sure you've had enough practice as a chaser, you're the only one that deserves a break."

A few of the people scowled at this.

"Pansy," Draco ordered, "give Eric your bat."

Slowly, she handed it to the boy, never taking her eyes off of Draco.

The second the team was out of ear-shot, he started on her.

"Pansy," he said quietly. "What's your problem?"

"_My_ problem?! Draco, what's _your_ problem? My performance was _fine_!"

"Pansy, why can't you just quit? This is the last game of the season, this is _your_ last game at Hogwarts – do you really want to do this to yourself?"

"I'm not doing anything, the only problem is _you_. _You're_ ruining it for everyone,"

"I am not. I'm trying to help you guys. But you constantly…"

"Draco, you're the problem and you know it. You're the problem with me at least. I gave a perfect performance last game. What happened to you? You used to be the epitome of all that was Slytherin. Everyone looked up to you, you know? And now, ever since Weasley came along…"

"_Don't _bring her into this," he said firmly. 

"No Draco, I've been meaning to talk to you about this for a while. And…" she suddenly became serious and her voice lowered. "I just want to know what's going on. I don't even care what it is, anymore. I used to be able to talk to you, and you used to be able to talk to me. Usually no matter what it was. And… I just want it to be that way again. Please just talk to me…"

"What do you want to know? I can't promise I'll tell you everything,"

She glared at him with an emotion that he had never seen on her before. Her chest was rising and falling very slowly but deeply as if she was trying to control it. Her eyes – he could see – were beginning to shine with tears. She couldn't _possibly _still like him this much, could she? It had been several months since their break up. Draco was about to speak when something stopped him.

Pansy, after taking a deep sobbing breath, leaned forward and kissed him. Her arms wrapped around his neck and her body pressed into his. For a moment, he was about to return her action, but…

Voices raced through Draco's head, forcing him to remember Ginny. Forcing him to recall conversations. With her, with Blaise. Things that had happened, including reason why he liked her just so much.

But, as he jerked back to reality he remembered that he was kissing Pansy. Ginny was the reason that he had broken up with this girl. He couldn't just let that all go to waste.

And besides, he was beginning to realize that he had fallen in love with Ginny quite some time ago. No other girl would do.

With that, he pushed her off of him roughly, causing her to give him an extremely hurt look.

"No Pansy, don't – _stop_ this."

She sounded out of breath. "But Draco…"

"_No_, Pansy – we're over, I'm sorry if it's not what you want but you have to face it."

"Draco…what happened to us?" she asked. There was a sad look in her eyes. It didn't have any effect on him. Good.

"Pansy, don't ask stupid questions, you know what happened," he said firmly.

"No. I can guess at what happened, but I want you to tell me because then I know it's the truth,"

Draco waited a while before talking. "It was all those detentions…" he said.

"_And_? Draco, you've had tons of detentions before but nothing like _this_ has ever happened. Was it her? Is that it?"

"Yes."

He watched as Pansy's eyes filled with tears. Again, no effect. He must really not have cared much for her then. "But... how – _why_?"

"I dunno! It's not like I _wanted_ it to. It's not like I said 'Oh, please God, make me fall in love with Ginny Weasley. Maybe then I can break up with my current girlfriend, have everyone hate me, get killed by both my dad and hers, and ruin my life. I think it'll be dandy…' Of _course_ I didn't ask for it,"

She stared at him blankly. "What did you just say?"

"I said that I hadn't asked for it to happen…."

"No. You just said you fell in love with her," her eyes clouded. "You _love_ her? You… you _never_ said you loved _me_, but when a _Weasley_ comes along, you automatically fall in love…"

"What are you talking about? I never said I loved her,"

"You might as well have, I can't believe this…"

"Pansy, it – it doesn't matter. She doesn't feel the same way and _I _don't even know what I feel. It sure as hell isn't love."

"Yes it is. You've practically said so. You love her. You _love_ her. I know you do. I can tell. How long has it been now? Months? Does she know? Draco, you've already ruined it for me… and you've already started to screw it up for another girl."

"Pansy…"

"No. You're going to screw her up. You love her, and you aren't going to tell her because I _know_ you and it's not your thing to get mushy. And you're going to screw her up because I can tell she likes you, and you're going to leave her like you did me and she'll be alone and miserable,"

Draco was shaking with some kind of intense emotion.

"Pansy, go practice," he said suddenly.

"But…"

"No. I want you to go outside and practice…. _now_. Just leave me alone,"

So, several minutes later, Draco trudged out of the locker room shaking from anger and the cold. He looked up at the players, all who seemed to be doing what they were supposed to be. He watched as the chasers did difficult maneuvers in order to challenge their team mates.

He finally joined them and watched as they followed his orders in order to get ready for the match against Ravenclaw. The Chasers swept in and drilled Blaise, getting him ready for all the foul shots that the Ravenclaws would be taking. Meanwhile the Beaters were busy trying to stop them from scoring. It was working out perfectly. They were going to win. As Draco just began to search around for the snitch a flash of red on the bleachers distracted him. 

He looked over to see a red headed girl with pigtails sitting in a dark black Slytherin cloak, watching him practice. 

And slowly, a smile spread across his face and not even all the galleons in the world would have stopped him from calling off practice early just so he could go down and see her. 

**Sorry about the cheesy ending and how fast the chapter seemed to be moving. I just really wanted to get it done and I guess I was in a hurry. Sorry, sorry, sorry.**

**I'm also so terribly sorry that it's so late. SOoOoO late. I think you all deserve an explanation. **

**Here it is.**

About a month and three weeks ago, my house went up for sale.  We were going to be having agents and people coming in at all times. My dad didn't want the laptops getting stolen. This chapter – like all the others – was on my laptop. However, before he could take it to my Grandmother's I completely forgot to save this to a disk. So… I had to wait until we got the new house to access this. It was 23 pages at the time… and I was pissed I hadn't been able to post it sooner because it was so nearly finished.   

**-Noto**


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